Rebooted
by LeDiz
Summary: Frontier/Duel Monsters - A program wasn't deleted as it should have been, and a story never got an ending. But this time, the program is nearly complete, and no Legendary Warrior or Duellist can stop it. Once again the question is: Will you? Or won't you?
1. Prologue

Rebooted – Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: **Very few things belong to me, least of all the protagonists and much of the supporting cast of this tale. They also do not belong to each other, or the owners of each other. This is a fanfic crossover, written for silly enjoyment, and we will all probably be best served to remember it.

* * *

><p>The fluoro green numbers rolled by, projected from a black screen into equally dark eyes.<p>

Despite being the vice president, in charge of thousands of employees, and the slightly more human face of Kaiba Corporation, Mokuba Kaiba rarely performed all the requirements of his job description. Really, he was more of a personal relations executive. Sometimes. When he felt like it.

It wasn't really _intentional_. Originally, it was a holdover from his brother's more psychotic days, when Seto didn't trust Mokuba to buy his own gaming software, let alone get anywhere near his company. Now it was just that Mokuba was thirteen and had better things to do than work.

As he continually pointed out to Rebecca Hopkins, he was in no hurry to grow up. Genius he may have been, but work and accelerated learning programs were ridiculous when you could get perfect grades at an ordinary school and just hang out with friends.

But sometimes Mokuba actually did do his job. He helped his brother with testing simulations, and finished planning events that Seto couldn't. Other times, like tonight, he went over old program files in search of useable material.

It wasn't the most demanding work, but Mokuba was one of the few people that could read the data without needing imaging software to understand it. And besides, with him in front of the monitor, Kaiba Corporation didn't run the risk of losing their software to a spy.

But that didn't mean it wasn't boring.

Tonight's job was particularly tiresome, because he was cleaning out all the old programs his brother had classified as 'Trojans'. Outside businesses and companies sometimes connected to Kaiba Corporation to swap software, which left a data trail – a mirror of the outsider's program – which Seto considered viruses, even though they weren't. Most of it was deletable, and Mokuba was considering doing a full wipe without bothering to finish when an odd set of numbers caught his eye.

He frowned, his brow furrowing as he reached for his coffee mug. In terms of standard binary, these numbers didn't make a lot of sense. And even if they did, they translated into a program that should have been deleted over a year ago.

"Virtual… world…" he murmured, and then took a deep gulp of his coffee and began a quick scan of the next few dozen pages of numbers. His eyes widened as he did, and his feet soon slipped off the desk in shock.

"Noah!"

* * *

><p>"Noah," Seto repeated, levelling Mokuba with a dark look. "As in the dead child our foster father kept alive in virtual space? The psychotic megalomaniac that hijacked my Battle City Blimp and tried to trap us all in virtual space so he could steal our bodies, take over Kaiba Corporation, and then possibly the world?"<p>

"Yeah, him," Mokuba said quickly, ignoring the cold snap with practiced ease. It wasn't personal – they'd once again been contacted by the National Education Minister, who had reminded them that Seto's financial and political power did not exempt him from standardised testing. He still had to take and pass his exams to graduate high school.

Seto snorted, slamming his cupboard door shut with suit now in hand. "Noah and his entire pathetic world were destroyed when the base operating system was blown apart by bombs," he pointed out irritably. "Neither of them could possibly be in our systems."

"I'm telling you, it's there. Corrupted, yeah, but recoverable. Noah—Noah's _world_—is all there where we can find it!" he said, and twisted around to watch his brother disappear behind a changing screen. "Noah's world was originally created through Kaiba Corporation systems – it was built and expanded into an AI by your advances in technology! And then the Big Five strengthened the connection so they could get into his world, allowing Noah to have full access! He transferred so much information between his world and our systems that we've practically got a mirror database! We can rebuild him!"

"Why would we?"

Mokuba blinked. "What?"

"Noah is dead. And psychotic. Not to mention that he brainwashed you so badly you're still affected by it," Seto added, almost thoughtlessly. "Why should we revive him in even that pathetic digital existence?"

"Because he's our brother," he argued. "Real or not, dead or alive, blood or adoption, he's our brother. You can't just ignore him!"

"He's dead."

"So was the other Yuugi!"

Seto didn't answer that straight away, and it wasn't until he was dressed in his trousers and had halfway buttoned his shirt that he stepped out from the changing screen to meet Mokuba's gaze. "Mutou said it best, Mokuba: the dead can't be allowed to stay in this world."

Mokuba lowered his head, hunching his shoulders up to avoid Seto's gaze. "But –"

"You are still affected by what he did to you. He brainwashed you into believing he cared about you. He made you think you had a deep connection. And then he took over your whole body in the most sickening violation I've ever heard of," he said coldly. "Even if your argument was valid, for those reasons and more, I won't hear another word about recovering those files."

He nodded quietly, and Seto stepped back behind the screen to continue dressing. Mokuba chewed his lip for a few seconds, then took a sharp breath and looked up again. "But –"

"I want you to wipe those files."

"What?"

"Wipe them. Erase them from all existence," Seto snapped. "I don't want them on my system. I don't even want them in my recycling bin. I want Noah, Gozaboro and their entire digital world off my hard drives."

Mokuba stared at the changing screen blankly for a few seconds, then lowered his eyes again. He couldn't do that, and he knew it. Regardless of what Noah had done to him, the blood Kaibas were a part of his history, and he could never destroy the past completely. They had tried to do that and never gotten anywhere good.

But, thinking about it, there were always other options… Kaiba Corporation was filled with AI restructuring programs. Even in junk data files like the cyber recycling bin.

Mokuba turned away to hide his smile as he stood up. "Okay, Big Brother. I'll delete them."

* * *

><p>Four real years and centuries of digital time later, eleven year old lower school student Takuya Kanbara stepped into the real world in the form of a monster made of solid, digital data.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Program Start<em>


	2. Let the Flames Begin

Rebooted – Chapter One

Let the Flames Begin…

**DISCLAIMER: ** Trufax: Most of the (human) names in Digimon Frontier didn't change from Japanese to English, aside from their pronunciation. Takuya Kanbara was always Takuya Kanbara, Kouji and Kouichi Minamotou were Koji and Koichi Minamoto (translation change and that's it). Granted, Tomoki became Tommy, Junpei became J.P., and Izumi was Zoe. Now, the Digimon names… ohh, translation is hard. Let's move on.

* * *

><p>The basketball stadium was full to bursting, as it always was for these exciting Saturday afternoon meets. All around, the crowd pushed and cheered, throwing up their hands and screaming as if the players could hear each individual shout. Some were screaming along with the cheerleaders; others were screaming <em>for<em> them.

Tomoki, a thirteen year old boy that readily admitted he had absolutely no interest in basketball, grinned as he ducked the flailing arm of a particularly enthusiastic fanboy beside him. "I don't think half of these people are even from the schools playing!"

"Of course not!" Izumi said cheerfully. Beautiful and sixteen, most people would never understand why her eyes never left the court, even as she continued speaking to her friends. "Not only is it the final, and our team is one of the best in the country, but our cheerleading squad is the hottest around!"

"They can't compare to you," Junpei told her, but he still only shot her a quick adoring glance before going back to the game. Although he had once been obsessive in a childhood crush on his bestfemale friend, these days Junpei made sure his advances were always playful and light-hearted. He knew Izumi had some mysterious boyfriend, but they didn't talk about it, so all he could do was just wait for the day she'd give up this other guy and accept his love. In the meantime, he was happy to flatter her and move on with their friendship. "Why aren't you on the cheerleading squad, anyway?"

"I've never cheered," she pointed out with a grin. "Besides, you can't see the game when you're busy with the crowd!"

"You can barely see the game when you're _in_ the crowd," Kouji muttered irritably, and his brother Kouichi chuckled.

They were five of six inseparable friends, from three different schools and varying in age right across their teens, but even five years after they'd first met, nothing had been able to tear them apart. When asked, they said it was because friendships made on trains could never be broken.

It wasn't a lie, exactly… but like the teenagers themselves, it was a lot more complicated than it seemed.

"Ah! Takuya's got the ball!" Tomoki shouted, clambering up on his seat to see better. "Go, big brother, go!"

They all flinched forward to watch as the last of their group snagged the basketball and began weaving his way up the court. Although shorter than the rest of the team by almost a head, Takuya was one of the best players, and had more than his fair share of admirers in the crowd. Many of the cheerleading squad gave up on their cheers to scream in excitement as he dodged under arms and twisted through the maze of players, the ball almost a blur as he dribbled it in time with his steps.

He made it across to the final third, only to stop short when he found himself surrounded by a group of opposing players. He glared at them from under his unruly hair, but those who knew him well knew he was scanning the court for his teammates.

"Come on, Takuya…" Kouji whispered, so low only Kouichi heard him, but his fist was clenched around Izumi's, and she inwardly smirked at the support he would later deny.

"Pass!" Takuya suddenly shouted, as he bounced the ball past the legs of the opposing team to a teammate, who took off toward the hoop, only to spin around when Takuya got free of his guards.

"Pass!" he called as he bounced it back, and Takuya caught it mid-jump, already aiming for the basket.

The referee blew his whistle as the ball went through and the crowd surged up, everyone but Kouji with them in a scream of triumph. He rolled his eyes, as if none of it mattered, but his friends knew better – he was as proud as the rest of them.

After all, Takuya was, and it seemed always would be, the reason they were all there.

After that first 'train ride', when they all became friends, they had nearly lost contact with each other simply because they'd hadn't even thought to trade details. It was ridiculous, and they laughed about it now, but at the time, they'd all just assumed they'd see each other again.

If not for Takuya, they probably never would have.

Months after the train ride, Takuya got a call to pick up his little brother from school one day, after said brother had gotten into a fistfight with a boy in his class. The last thing he'd ever expected was to find out the other boy was Tomoki.

Due to being long-lost twins and Kouichi being confined to hospital for a week after the train ride, Kouji and Kouichi were the only two in constant contact from the beginning. When he realised that Kouji was impossible to talk to without Takuya annoying them, Kouichi had started searching the school databases, until he found Takuya on a listing for his school's soccer team.

Izumi had accidentally bumped into him in McDonalds one day. And when they hit middle school, Takuya just happened to enrol in the same school as Junpei.

It was all accident, coincidence, and so like him that they couldn't even joke about it. That was just how things worked with Takuya.

Back in the game, he was already running back down the court, getting in the way of the opposing team and taking swipes at the ball that weren't intended to catch it. Kouichi settled back down beside his brother and tilted his head with a furrowed brow. "You know, the longer this game goes on, the stranger it feels."

"How so?" Junpei asked distractedly, before crying out at some random foul the referee didn't catch.

"Something about Takuya seems off, don't you think?"

"He's single handedly _kicking the other team's butt_?" Tomoki suggested, ending it on a shout that was lost in the crowd.

"No… It's something really small, I'm sure of it…"

"Are you sure it's not his lack of sweat?" Izumi absently asked.

Tomoki blinked and leaned forward for a better look, and Junpei rubbed his eyes to check again. "No way…"

"He hasn't sweated properly for years now," Kouji said, frowning at them for not having noticed. "Almost since his voice broke. How many of his games have you been to and not noticed that?"

"How can you even see that from this distance?" Tomoki asked, squinting.

"His skin doesn't shine from the moisture," Izumi pointed out. "See?"

"Is that it?" Kouji asked his brother, but Kouichi shook his head.

"That too, but…" He narrowed his eyes, watching closely as Takuya only just barely avoided colliding with another player. His gaze was somehow drawn to Takuya's shoes, and he frowned, trying to focus on them as they flashed across the court. "Something about his feet…"

"One minute left!" Tomoki cried, and then cheered as Takuya managed to bat the ball out of the other team's possession.

"They're gonna win!" Junpei shouted, and Kouichi's concern was left behind in the cheering crowd.

But Kouji's eyes trained on Takuya's feet even as his brother went back to watching the ball. That, he figured, was the only reason no one even noticed when Takuya's foot burst into flame.

* * *

><p>It was the text message that changed everything, as they called it.<p>

Every child in Tokyo had gotten the message. "Will you start? Or won't you…?"

It didn't matter what it meant or what they expected of it – Takuya, Izumi, Junpei and Kouji had followed the directions and gotten on a train. Tomoki had been shoved alongside them, and Kouichi fell down a flight of stairs, and the six of them had been taken to a whole different world.

In the early days, when they were all still trying to reassure themselves that it really happened, they tried to explain the world to each other. But there wasn't any easy way to describe it. It was a magic world, filled with impossible creatures called digimon, and it all worked on digital rules – you could be erased, recreated, reprogrammed, and everything was built off models that never changed. It was a digital world. The Digital World.

They'd been called by one of the most powerful creatures in this new world – Ophanimon. And the six of them had been chosen out of the hundreds who answered the call, because… well, they weren't really sure why. Ophanimon said they were pure of heart, but that was a lie and all six of them knew it. But they were chosen, and given the power to change into digimon that were even more impossible than the impossible creatures around them.

They'd fought a lot of battles in the Digital World. Both with enemies and themselves… they realised who they were and who they wanted to be. They grew up, and then they saved two worlds. And everything had changed for them, but they were still sent back to the real world and told that nothing had.

That had caused problems.

Two years after they came back, Kouji was woken from a strange dream filled with blood and teeth that hadn't been a nightmare. Still, he wasn't altogether upset to be out of it, and just lay there for a moment, wondering what had woken him, until there was another sharp rap on his window.

"Kouji! Kouji, wake up!"

He frowned, then clenched his eyes shut and reached for the light switch. He wasn't sure when it had started, but his eyesight had been getting progressively worse in dim light. Not even the nightlight he denied having bought was bright enough for him to see even a hand in front of his face.

Once the spots left his eyes, he peered down and around at his window, blinking wearily at an oddly familiar shape on the other side. After a moment, he rolled out of bed and wandered over to slide his window open, glaring at Takuya's smile.

"It's two in the morning. This had better be damn important."

"It's not," he replied, and then slid past Kouji's arm to stand inside.

Kouji hesitated, then peered out the window, trying to see how Takuya could have possibly climbed to the second floor. The only possibility seemed to be the drainpipe, a good metre away from the window, and Kouji turned to stare at his friend in question. "How'd you get up here?"

"Climbed," he said lightly and then folded his arms behind his back. "How you doing?"

Kouji continued to stare at him, brow furrowing in a mixture of concern and both real and feigned annoyance. "You came over here at two in the morning to ask me how I'm doing?"

"Well, no, it's just that something happened today and that made me think about something tonight," he said, his eyes flicking around at Kouji's possessions but never resting long enough for Kouji to have any idea what he was thinking. "And I thought, you know, that since you and I have always been kinda similar in some stuff, I thought you might have been thinking the same thing."

The real irritation faded away in confusion, but Kouji kept his expression harsh. It was the easiest way to deal with Takuya, sometimes. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, really… just… have you…" He hesitated, glancing at him for a bare second before flicking up to the ceiling. "Have you noticed yourself doing anything weird lately?"

"Like…?"

"Like… like feeling cold for no reason, or… getting into dumb fights that don't mean anything or… or you know… maybe… making out with people you don't want to…?"

Any thought of returning to sleep banished as Kouji's eyes widened and he turned to stare at him outright. "What?"

He licked his lips and lowered his head, avoiding Kouji's gaze. "I… we were…"

"Takuya, what's going on?"

"It… it…" His hands were fidgeting like mad, and Kouji found himself staring at them as Takuya started pacing. "I went to Izumi's gymnastics trial thingy today. And I was cheering for her, and everything was fine, but then, in the middle of the trial, she looked up at me, and we were just looking at each other and… and…"

"And?" Kouji repeated.

"I – well, I went to see her afterward; see how she'd gone in the awards and stuff, but then I got there and looked at her and… and then we were suddenly making out," he said, and then combed his hands through his hair until they could lace around the back of his neck. Kouji's eyes fixed on the hollow of Takuya's throat because it was much easier than checking his face for a lie. "I don't… I don't even know why. I – I don't even like her like that, you know? She's Izumi, and even if she wasn't, she's _Junpei's_. And all the time we were making out, I just kept thinking about how wrong it was, and how I didn't want to do it, but it was just… happening."

Kouji forcefully swallowed the block in his throat and unclenched his jaw. He made himself blink, and raised his eyes to see Takuya's expression. "You woke me up for dating advice?" he snapped, and then inwardly flinched at how cold it had sounded.

"No, I just… something about this feels…" He hesitated, then looked up to finally meet Kouji's gaze. They just looked at each other for a moment, before Takuya managed a thin smile and shook his head. "You know what? You're right; it was stupid of me to come over here. Sorry for waking you up."

He wanted to hit him. He told himself it was because Takuya had woken him up at a ridiculous hour of the morning to brag, but a more honest part of his mind said it was because of what Takuya had said. Either way, he couldn't hit his friend, and so just stood still and silent as Takuya walked back to the window. But not even his tight self control could stop him from snatching hold of Takuya's arm, keeping him inside just long enough for them to stare at each other in uncomfortable silence.

"Are you…" He grimaced, then let go. "Are you okay?"

Takuya paused, his eyes flicking all over the place again before coming back to settle on Kouji's face. "No. I don't think I am."

"Then –" he began, but Takuya just shook his head and jumped out the window. Kouji flinched and leaned out to watch as Takuya gracefully landed on all fours, only pausing in what was obviously surprise at his own feat before standing to look up at him again.

Kouji's night vision wasn't good enough to see Takuya's shrug, but he could almost sense it in the words, "I just can't put a finger on what's wrong, you know? Until I figure it out… I figure it's best to just go with it, right?"

Whatever it was, it hadn't fixed itself in the last two years. If anything, it had gotten worse: even Izumi had admitted they weren't in love, but she and Takuya had secretly been 'going steady' pretty much since then, and Kouji's reactions to it were getting harder to control. He had very, very nearly knocked Takuya out the week before to keep him from going on a date, though he blamed that on the time. It had been dusk, and Kouji's night vision had long since gotten past the point of being blind once the sun went down. Takuya seemed to glow in the dark a little, so (Kouji told himself firmly) it was just self-preservation that wanted him close by at night.

No matter his own reaction, there was no getting around how strange Takuya and Izumi's relationship was. It almost followed a pattern: they could go days without even giving each other a meaningful glance, but as soon as either one of them did anything particularly athletic, they would disappear together for an hour afterwards. If they weren't allowed to do so, they would be incredibly distracted, and only worth half a conversation between them.

So he knew he shouldn't have been surprised to walk into the locker room after the game and find them together. He knew full well that, as Izumi's friend and Takuya's _best_ friend, he should have just turned around and left them alone.

But it was hard. And soon, he really was going to punch someone for it. Or at least throw Takuya up against a wall and demand to know why he was doing this to their group. To him.

He clenched his fists, forcing himself to stay still as Izumi's legs wrapped around Takuya's waist. He made himself keep silent as he saw her tongue slide over Takuya's lip before disappearing between them. Her hands scratched down Takuya's spine and around the back of his neck. Takuya's hands were invisible to Kouji's eyes; supporting her, keeping her steady and stable. She bent her head to suckle on his neck, and he growled, low and throaty, before slamming her further into the lockers and rocking up into her.

Kouji felt a single strand of control break. "Are you guys done making me sick, or should I just go throw up now?"

Takuya gasped like a drowning man and pulled back, panting as Izumi gripped his shoulders to stay balanced. The two of them blinked rapidly, then looked up and around, and he bit back an urge to snarl at their blank stares. Izumi looked like she might hurt him for interrupting, but after a few more blinks, the glare left her eyes, and she pushed Takuya away to step down to the floor.

"Locker room," she gasped, and he nodded, stumbling back to the other side of the aisle.

"Dammit…" he whispered, still breathing hard as he slowly slid down to the floor. "Why is this getting harder to control?"

Kouji glared between them, not totally aware of himself as he snarled, "Self-control didn't seem like much of a factor right there."

Takuya looked out from under his hair, but Izumi lifted her head to scowl at him outright. "We're trying harder than you can possibly imagine. We don't want this, you know."

"Sure as hell seems like it," he snapped back, and she shoved herself up straight, shoulders hunched in anger.

"You don't know anything about it! This isn't normal; it's not what I wanted!" she cried. "I wanted to fall in love! I wanted my first kiss to be something special. I wanted to make _love_ the first time I slept with someone!"

"Forgive the outside opinion, but you never seem overly upset while it's happening."

"Hey, guys?" Takuya interjected, but they both ignored him, stepping forward until more height separated their glares than space.

"Again, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" Izumi growled, and Kouji's eyes narrowed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You wouldn't know how to enjoy yourself if someone _taught_ you," she said. "And you certainly wouldn't know what it looks like when someone's enjoying sex!"

"You're right, unlike Takuya, I haven't given myself up to the first tramp that throws herself at me," he shot back.

"Like you could get one to."

Takuya blinked, staring between them in confusion. He had a feeling it was because of their time in the digital world, but he could swear that if the two of them had had fur, it would have been on end as they growled at each other. "Uh… guys?"

"So all I have for example is how Takuya looks when I walk in on you two all over the world, and I know he _can't_ be enjoying himself with you," Kouji snarled, and Izumi smirked.

"Not when you're around; voyeurs turn him off."

"Maybe it's just blonde bimbos that do that."

Takuya's eyes widened as he watched Izumi's hands curl into hooked claws, her long fingernails bared and angry. He scrambled to his feet, hands out at the ready. "Seriously, guys, calm down."

"Oh, if only he were into guys, you could do so much better, couldn't you?" she hissed, and Kouji scoffed low in his throat in a way that almost sounded like a bark.

"Even if he wasn't. Even _Tomoki_ could do better than you."

"_You perverted little_ –!"

Takuya leapt up and grabbed Izumi's wrist before her fingernails could rip Kouji's cheek open, and he forcefully shoved her back into the lockers so Kouji's fists wouldn't follow through on their raised threat. "Stop it!"

"Stay out of this Takuya!" shouted Kouji.

"Yeah, this is between me and the mongrel!" Izumi cried, but Takuya spread his arms, pushing on both of their chests to keep them apart. In an open fight, Kouji could always beat Takuya easily, but not when it came to brute strength. He gripped Takuya's arm but otherwise didn't struggle, and Izumi leaned into Takuya's hand as she literally hissed.

"_Knock it off!_" Takuya yelled, and they both fell silent, but continued glaring at each other. He stared between them incredulously. "Seriously guys, where's this coming from? What're you even fighting about?"

They didn't move for a second, before Kouji blinked, breaking eye contact and causing Izumi to flinch. They both returned his flickering gaze with stares, and then looked at each other blankly.

"Well?" Takuya demanded, and they both stepped back.

"I… don't know," Izumi said, and Kouji shook his head.

"Me either." He hesitated, and then furrowed his brow, rolling his eyes around the room before they came to rest on Izumi. "I… what the hell was that?"

"I… Oh, god, Kouji, I'm so sorry," she moaned, leaning back in horror. "I didn't mean to say that stuff. Really, I just… you walked in, and it was like… you were like…"

"You tried to scratch my eyes out…"

They just stared at each other for a second, and Takuya lifted his hands to scrub at his hair. "I don't think it was exactly intentional, Kouji. You were gonna punch her."

"I was…" he breathed, and Izumi covered her mouth with her hand.

"Why would we…?"

They fell silent, all of them looking down at Izumi's fingers. For reasons she had never really understood herself, she had started filing her nails into sharp points. They regularly left tracks down Takuya's back, and they had drawn blood once when she had gotten a little too excited. She curled her hands into fists and tucked them under her armpits, horrified.

"I'm hungry."

She flinched, and both she and Kouji looked up at Takuya in disbelief. He blinked right back, then focussed on Izumi. "I'm not in the mood anymore. I'm just hungry."

Izumi stared at him for a second, then shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not in the mood either, but… to tell you the truth, Kouji, I kinda want to keep shoving you away."

"Me too," he said, then took a deep breath and folded his arms over his chest. "This doesn't feel right. I don't want to hurt you, Izumi, but… something in me is telling me to."

"It's like when we do stuff," Izumi murmured, looking at Takuya sideways. "The last thing I want to do is hurt Kouji, but at the same time I have this real urge to pepper-spray him."

Takuya hesitated, lifting his hand to his chin as he considered, then sighed and shook his head. "This is obviously connected," he muttered, then scrubbed at his hair again. "Dammit… much as I never wanted to do this… we've gotta talk to the others."

* * *

><p>"Geez, Junpei… packrat much?"<p>

He paused in shifting a bundle of textbooks from his desk and joined his friends in staring at his overcrowded room. Although a large room by suburban standards, it was packed full to bursting with books, toys, electronics, photographs, paper, ornaments and food. Even the floor was completely covered, with only thin walkways between his bunk bed-desk, cupboard and door.

"Yeah… I keep meaning to clean it out, but every time I start, I realise I need it all," he said, gesturing at the ornament-covered bookshelf. "I figure it'll all come in handy some day."

Kouichi grimaced, picking his way around a swaying pile of comic books to reach a bundle of cushions that he had decided would be his seat for the conversation. "The food, cushions and clothes I can understand. But why all the electronics?"

"Yeah, you've got like six different cameras on your desk," Tomoki pointed out as he clambered up the ladder to sit on the bed. "How many do you use?"

"I don't usually take photos," Junpei replied with a wince. "But I might, one day."

"_Can't stop yourself_ collecting them, huh?" Kouji asked, shooting Takuya and Izumi meaningful looks, and they both exchanged glances before continuing the careful trek to their decided seats. Izumi joined Tomoki on the bed, and Takuya sat on a pile of psychology books beside Kouichi, while Kouji leaned against the wall behind him.

"Well, they keep upgrading. And it would be a waste to get rid of something I haven't used yet. So yeah, kind of."

"So what's this about, Kouji, Takuya?" Kouichi asked, before stifling a yawn. "Not that I don't like spending time with all of us together, but I like sleep, too."

"It's barely six," Tomoki said blankly, but Kouichi just shrugged.

"It's Saturday. I can sleep all I like, tonight."

"You sleep more than any of us do every night," Kouji pointed out, and Kouichi raised his eyebrows.

"So?"

Takuya shook his head. "So we think it might be more than you just wanting to."

"What do you mean?"

He grimaced, lacing his fingers. "Look, haven't you guys noticed anything weird the last few years? Some little change that you can't really explain?"

"Like what?" asked Tomoki, and he frowned.

"Like…" He trailed off, then sighed. "Okay, like Junpei's collection of sheer _stuff_. When'd this start, Junpei?"

He blinked, looking around the room. "I dunno… maybe a year or so after we got back from the digital world?"

"Right. You said you can't really stop yourself from collecting more, right?"

"No, Kouji said that," he said, then frowned and shrugged. "But I guess. I mean… I don't _want_ all this stuff. And I'm always broke. I'd like to have more money, but…"

"It's the same with Big Brother Kouichi's sleeping habits," Kouji said, and he raised an eyebrow at Kouichi's look. "It's true. Lately all you ever do is eat, study and sleep. Every time I come over to your apartment, you've just woken up from a nap."

He frowned, but Izumi continued before he could comment. "I can never stop moving around. I jump from one project to another, one group of friends to another, all the time, so I'm never alone and always talking to someone while I'm always doing something."

Takuya paused, letting that sink in for a few seconds. "When you think about it, all of us have been acting strangely. We've been doing things we don't really want to do. And we can't stop doing them, either. Like our bodies are programmed to do them whether we want to or not."

"Programmed? That's an interesting choice of words," Junpei observed, but Takuya just gave him a look.

"What's our one connection, aside from being friends?"

"I don't know, Big Brother Takuya," Tomoki said slowly. "I can't think of anything I've been doing weird. And what about you and Kouji?"

"Me and Kouji…" Takuya lowered his eyes, thinking about it, but Kouji beat him to it.

"Takuya catches on fire."

He froze, his gaze locking onto nothing as the blood drained from his face. The others all stared at Kouji for a second, then looked around at Takuya.

"He does what?" Junpei asked.

"He catches on fire," Kouji repeated, the memory of why he'd gone looking for Takuya tonight suddenly coming back. "At the game tonight – his foot caught flame for a few seconds."

"No, it didn't," Takuya said quickly, still not looking at any of them.

"Repeatedly. Just little bursts of flame. What, didn't you think anyone noticed?" he asked, and frowned as Takuya started fidgeting with the cuff of his glove.

"Well… even if I did, which I didn't, it's not what we're talking about, here," he said, then turned to look at him properly. "What we're talking about is weird personality traits. Like you running around hunting things."

"Hunting?" Kouji repeated, raising his eyebrow. "What do I hunt?"

"Everything. Books for study. People to mock. Opponents to practice your martial arts on. _Food_. Anything that could leave a trail." He turned away to avoid Kouji's response and met Junpei's sceptical gaze. "When you think about it, all of us have been acting weird the last few years, in different ways."

"Yeah, it's called 'growing up'," Junpei said, but Takuya shook his head.

"No, that's why we haven't really noticed it before. Because we're supposed to be changing. But it's getting worse, and I don't know what'll happen if we don't do something about it."

"What could possibly happen?" he asked. "My room could fill so much I can't close the door? Kouichi sleeps through a few classes? Kouji develops a taste for raw chicken?"

"Takuya could catch fire and burn the town down," Kouji pointed out.

"I do not catch fire!" he said loudly, but continued gazing at Junpei. "Those weren't the only problems."

"The point is that we can't control what we're doing, any more," Izumi said, leaning over the edge of the bed to look at him. "I don't know about you, Junpei, but I certainly prefer being in control of my own actions."

"Always having to spend time with people isn't –"

"It's not just that!" she cried, and Junpei flinched at the outburst. She bit her lip, then looked over at Takuya and Kouji. "It's dangerous, Junpei. Tonight… After the game tonight, Takuya and I were – we were talking, but then Kouji came in and interrupted us because he needed to talk to Takuya, too. And… as stupid as it sounds, that made me absolutely furious, because right then and there, Takuya belonged to _me_. _I_ was talking to him, and no one else had any right to come near him. The fact that Kouji was coming in and trying to take him away made me mad enough to start a fight."

"No way," Tomoki said, staring at her, but she just grimaced and shrugged.

"It was the same for me," Kouji said quietly. "It annoyed me that Takuya and Izumi were spending so much time together that Takuya couldn't talk to me. It felt… satisfying when Izumi started yelling at me, because it gave me an excuse to fight back."

"They nearly got into a real fight, with nails and fists and stuff. I only just managed to stop them before Izumi nearly clawed Kouji's face off," said Takuya. "It wasn't that they want to hurt each other. They just almost did."

"And it doesn't just extend to Izumi," Kouji continued. "In all my judo classes, I find myself attacking much harder than I need to. Takuya's game tonight – we all saw him sizing up the other team like he used to our enemies. It's not a game to him. Junpei, you puff up like a peacock as soon as a girl comes within ten metres of you, even if you don't even pay attention to them. It's just automatic."

"When Kouichi isn't sleeping, he's guarding his food like someone's going to steal it from him," Izumi pointed out. "Even you, Tomoki! Takuya told me you're always getting into stupid fights at school!"

He lowered his head, peeking at her from under his hair. "They would've hit me first."

"That note you were supposed to give your parents said the last kid just walked by your lunch table," Takuya said, and he blushed, bowing further forward.

Kouichi frowned, looking between them all in consideration. "Okay, I admit I think it's a little strange that Izumi actually tried to attack Kouji, and yes, I sleep a little more than I need to," he said slowly. "But it seems a bit of a jump to go from a few strange personality traits to something we need to in the context of the Digital World."

"Not when you factor in a few other little things," Kouji said quietly. "I never gave it much thought, but the last few years, I, Warrior of Light, haven't been able to see in dim light. You, Warrior of Darkness, are always wearing sunglasses and getting sunburned. Electronics going haywire around Junpei… And whether he admits it or not, Takuya's foot did catch fire tonight."

"Why are you stuck on that?" Takuya demanded, spinning around to glare at him again.

"Why won't you admit it? You obviously know it's true," he argued, and Takuya jumped to his feet, fists clenched.

"You need your eyes checked, Minamoto! First of all, I was never on fire tonight, and second, I wasn't sizing up the other team like an enemy. It was a game, I know it was a game," he snapped, but Kouji's eyes only narrowed in response.

"Are you listening to yourself?" he asked, folding his arms. "For years, you've been the one convincing me something weird's going on, and now you're denying it?"

"I'm not denying something weird's going on, I'm just saying you're wrong about what it is," he snapped. "I'm saying you're exaggerating to get the guys to believe us!"

"That's not what I'm doing and you know it," he said coolly, but it did nothing to Takuya's visibly rising temper.

"We don't need you using tactics to prove what's true! You're always doing this, Kouji, you're always trying to sneak through things that should be done out in the open!" he cried, and Kouji frowned, tilting his head in concern.

"You need to calm down. Start thinking about what you're saying."

"I am calm!" he shouted, and the others cringed away while Kouji pushed off the wall and stepped up close to him.

"I know you're an idiot, Takuya, but this is going too far even for you," he said quietly. "Think. Why are you reacting like this?"

"I'm not reacting!"

"You are reacting," he replied, keeping his words as icy cold as he could manage. "You're being reactionary."

"You're the one that's getting obsessive and lying to our friends; I'm just making sure everyone's thinking about this rationally," he snapped.

"Everyone except you."

"Dammit, Kouji!"

"Stop it!" Izumi cried, but Takuya's head only snapped to the side for a second before he continued glaring.

Kouji leaned a little closer, raising an eyebrow when Takuya grunted out something close to a growl. "Think about it, Takuya. You were fine until I mentioned you catching fire, tonight."

"I didn't catch fire!"

"I saw your foot in flames for a good second, Takuya. It wasn't a spark, it was real fire. And you are protesting way too much for someone who's denying a ridiculous lie," he said quietly. "And you can't deny that you treat the playing field like a battle field."

"I'm not some insane general that orders people around."

"Why does that idea bother you?" he asked, turning his head to the side. "You've always been the one to keep us together, remember?"

"In the Digital World! This is the real world!" he shouted. "We're human, and you're acting like I'm some digimon!"

"You're the one who brought up the digital world tonight, Takuya," Kouichi said quietly, but Takuya spun around to glare at him instead.

"Oh, shock here, you two ganging up on me! Real fair, guys!"

"Takuya…" Tomoki murmured.

"Hey, what's wrong?" asked Junpei. "Chill out, buddy."

"Cute, Junpei," Takuya snapped, and he blinked, then caught the joke and winced.

"That's not what I meant," he said, chuckling despite himself. "But seriously, calm down. We're just talking, here."

"No, we were talking before Kouji here inspired you guys to start acting like this," he said, and they all stared at him blankly. Acting like what…?

Izumi leaned forward, climbing a few steps down the ladder. "Takuya…?"

"You're acting kind of strangely," Kouichi murmured, slowly hefting himself to his feet. Takuya jumped a few steps back and away from him, hunching over with his arms bent defensively, and Kouichi looked to Kouji for guidance.

"Okay, if this was some kind of plan to get us to listen to you guys, we believe you," Tomoki said, trying to laugh as he watched, worried. "You can stop now, Big Brother Takuya."

"Even Tomoki? You've got _Tomoki_ acting like I'm the weird one here?" Takuya demanded, backing up toward the door so he could look around at them all. "That's low. What're you trying to prove?"

"Takuya, we're not trying to prove anything, we're just saying you're –" Izumi caught herself at the last second and smiled. "We just want you to calm down so we can keep talking."

"Liar…" he hissed, and they all flinched as a visible curl of steam escaped from between his clenched teeth.

Kouji held his hand out, palm down, to indicate they should all stay back as he took a slow, cautionary step around a stack of manga to stand in front of Takuya. "What do you want us to do, Takuya?"

"Back off!" he snarled, and Kouji nodded, glancing at the others until they had all moved as close to the walls as possible. Takuya's eyes narrowed. "You too."

"I'm not moving until you tell me what you're thinking, Takuya."

"Stop saying my name like that!"

"Talk to me, Takuya."

"I told you to stop that!"

"_Think_, Takuya!"

"I said _knock it off_!" he shouted, and they all fell back as his hands burst into flame, fire exploding up his arms in a flash before fading away again. Kouji had fallen over a pile of shoes in his shock, and he could only watch as Takuya spun on his heel and leapt for the door, swinging his way around the doorframe and taking off at a sprint.

"What the hell was that?" Junpei cried, and the others stared at him for a second before Kouichi scrambled over to his brother.

"Are you okay?"

"Fine… but I get the feeling Takuya isn't," he said, and accepted Kouichi's hand in hauling himself to his feet. "We have to catch him before he gets out of the house –"

A banging door finished his sentence, and he swore under his breath as he lead the way out of the room. "Let's just find him!"

* * *

><p>Something was wrong.<p>

Takuya forced himself to slow down, but no sooner had he stumbled to a stop did he realise he was out in the open where just anyone could get him. Including his so-called friends. He glanced around the street for some kind of hiding place, and his eyes caught on a familiar street sign. He was only two blocks from a park. He hadn't hidden in a park since he was ten – no one would think to look for him there.

He started sprinting again, but his brow furrowed at the nagging thought in the back of his head.

Something was wrong. Something very strange was happening.

Why was he running from his friends? They had been acting weird… like they were threatening him. He knew that. But at the same time, he couldn't actually pin down what it was that had been so threatening.

But they had all been accusing him of something! They had all been acting like he was the crazy one, like he'd been doing something strange. And then they all ganged up on him. And they all just kept coming closer, with their hands, like they were going to tie him up or something…

He leapt over the park fence, landed square on his hands and flipped off them to come to a halt on all fours near the slides. He paused, half-realising the movement was far beyond his capabilities, then snarled and shook his head. What did it matter? He had to hide!

They would never think to look for him here.

Even so, just in case… He bounded into the play castle and crouched in the darkest corner, glaring out through a gap in the wooden slats to watch the street. Only then did he let his mind keep thinking.

Something was definitely wrong. He couldn't actually remember what it was exactly that freaked him out so much about Kouji's lie. He didn't catch fire. That was a digimon thing. And even so, he had always controlled his fire… except when he first became Vrytramon. When he first got his beast spirit and it had – had Kouji been accusing him of trying to kill them? That bastard, was he trying to make them all afraid of him? Except for that one time, Takuya had always been in complete control of himself and his body. Always.

Except… except with this thing with Izumi.

A sudden pulsing headache sprung up between his temples and he gripped his head with both hands, gritting his teeth to stop the pain.

The thing with Izumi wasn't under his control. For the last two and a half years, he'd been going out with a girl he only liked as a friend. And that was all he wanted from her – friendship! He knew that, he'd thought and talked it over with her a thousand times! They were only really doing what they were doing because they were such good friends and they both wanted more… why not get it from each other? Lovers were supposed to be best friends, right? Even… even if they weren't in love, it was… well, it was a start.

The headache got worse, and he sobbed out a shuddering groan, hunching over his knees.

Today, Izumi and Kouji hadn't wanted to fight… they certainly hadn't wanted to hurt each other, but they almost had. Was this what had happened to them? No, Kouji and the others had definitely been attacking him. He wasn't wrong about that. Except that he wasn't entirely sure that the others had actually accused him of anything… and he wasn't completely certain that Kouji was wrong about him and the fire…

Heat sprang up around him, and he cried out at a sharp slice through his skull. It felt like something was trying to carve its way through his head.

Whatever was happening with his body… ever since he was thirteen, he'd been doing weird things he couldn't quite understand. He could climb drain pipes, jump two metres in any direction, he was way more agile than half the martial arts team. He didn't train or anything, beyond soccer and basketball practice. That wasn't normal. He shouldn't have been able to do that.

"It hurts…" he hissed, pushing his pounding head against the dirt beneath him, but he couldn't stop thinking now, and the heat and pain just kept building.

He hadn't been happy when he came back to the real world. It had been all he'd wanted at first: to be able to restore peace to the digital world and go home. Be a normal kid. But he'd only been home a week when he realised he wasn't normal. Normalcy was boring. As a kid, he wasn't supposed to do anything. No one gave him any responsibility. No one relied on him for anything. No one gave him any credit.

He'd been bored but normal for a year. Then he'd been doing chores at school when he distinctly heard the wind tell him it was going to rain on his way home. He had taken it for his imagination, until he stepped out of the locker room to find himself staring at a sheet of water. He really had heard nature speak to him again. That wasn't normal. That wasn't right.

He yelled out again as the pain in his head grew to a roar, and he threw himself back and into the wall behind him. "It hurts, dammit!"

Kouji hadn't been accusing him. The others hadn't been attacking him. He had caught fire. He had heard nature speak to him. He had lost all control of his body. Something was very, very wrong.

It was so hot, and so painful, and all he could see was fire. He threw back his head and screamed as the world erupted in flames.

* * *

><p>[<em>continue…?<em>]


	3. Instinctual Influence

Rebooted – Chapter Two

Instinctual Influence

**DISCLAIMER: **I'm always confused by elemental powers in kids' shows, because they never really tell you whether they're immune to their own elements. Sometimes it looks like they are—EmperorGreymon getting shoved againt the stove actually recharged him—but othertimes it's just an ordinary attack. It's very confusing.

* * *

><p>"There!" Tomoki shouted, and Kouji spun around to follow his pointing finger.<p>

"Holy…" breathed Junpei, and he didn't even blink when Izumi grabbed his arm.

Past the rooftops and trees lining the streets, they could see a huge column of flame towering over Junpei's suburb.

Kouichi staggered forward, his eyes wide in disbelief. "That can't be…"

An animalistic howl broke through the quiet calm of early evening, and Kouji felt his whole body clench in fear. "Takuya," he whispered, and started sprinting for the flames. He barely noticed the others following him, or the people coming out of their houses to see what was causing the terrible scream. When he reached the park and vaulted over the fence, he shoved his way through the gathered crowd to stand on the edge, staring at the flaming play castle in front of him.

"There's something in there!" somebody was crying. "A dog or something! Someone help it!"

"Call the fire department!" someone else shouted. "Someone get some water!"

"No!" another cried. "You can't go in there; you'll be burned to a crisp!"

"I've got to save that poor animal!"

"It's too late!"

Kouji clenched his teeth and broke away from the crowd, ignoring the shouts for him to stay back. He knew Takuya was in there. Takuya was the one screaming. Warrior of Flame or not, no human could withstand that kind of fire.

"Takuya!" he shouted, running around the other side of the playground in search of an entrance. "Takuya, talk to me! Where are you?"

The howling broke down into loud, whimpering sobs, and the fire dimmed with it, lowering just enough for Kouji to find the doorway. He ripped off his bandana to cover his mouth and ducked inside, wincing against the blinding smoke. He couldn't see a damn thing, but he had only gone two steps before he bumped into something that jumped away from him. He crouched down under the fire and smoke to peer at the shuddering figure, only to gasp and flinch back.

It wasn't Takuya.

It wasn't even human.

It was a digimon, covered in soot from its spiky red hair to its bright red claws. A real, live, digimon… in the real world.

It sobbed out what might have been a growl, but Kouji ignored any thoughts of fear and shoved his shock aside, inching forward with one hand extended.

"Takuya…? Is that you?"

The digimon gave another sobbing growl, before its head jerked to the side and it blinked rapidly. "Kouji! I've figured it out! I know what's wrong with us!"

"Come on, let's get out of here!" he called, stretching his hand a little further.

"No! No, I can't move!" it cried, then yelled out and clutched at its head. "It hurts…!"

"Takuya, please! You might be okay in this fire, but I'm not!" he shouted. "We need to get out of here!"

For a second, the digimon didn't move, before its head snapped around again and it bared its teeth. "You want me, you come –" It shouted something unintelligible and threw its head into the fire-covered wall, smashing a hole in the wood. "No! I don't want that!"

Kouji stared helplessly for a moment, then grit his teeth and lashed out, snatching its wrist and pulling hard. "Come on, Takuya! Please!"

"I can't move!" it wailed. "It hurts!"

"Then I'll move you," he snarled, ignoring the digimon's sobbing howl as he yanked it out of the burning play castle. Once they were out of the flames, it got easier for the digimon to move, and soon Kouji was only leading it along as they sprinted out of the playground and into the surrounding trees.

* * *

><p>"My name is Flamon," Takuya called over the roar of the pouring shower. "I think I'm like the lesser-evolved version of Agunimon. Can I come out of the water yet?"<p>

"You promise not to do the schizo thing anymore?" Junpei shouted back.

"It's not something I can control, you know!"

"Then no, you can't come out of the water yet!"

Takuya huffed but stayed put, shifting so he could rest more comfortably without sitting on his tail. Even to his own eyes and ears, he was exactly as he had been the first time he had returned from the digital world: a small fire-type digimon. Standing up, he was barely a hundred and forty centimetres tall, only covering five feet by counting the bushy red hair that was currently plastered down over his head and shoulders, covering his stubbed horns. His skin was a duskier red, but he also had a tail that mimicked fire in not only multi-faceted colour but its shape and the crackling noise it made as it moved. He knew his eyes were large and green, surrounded by sooty lashes, and his voice had risen until he sounded pre-pubescent. His sopping clothes were baggy red pants and bands on his shoulders and ankles, along with studded handless gauntlets that he had long since removed under the steady stream of freezing water. He wasn't entirely certain what the cold water was supposed to do, but his friends seemed to think it was subduing the wild voice in his head that was telling him to run away and find a nice, solitary burrow to make his lair.

He traced the white markings on his stomach, considering how best to get himself out of this situation. As a fire-type, he wasn't overly fond of water, even if most of it was turning to steam as soon as it touched him.

"Look, I think I've figured out what's going on," he called, trying to see through the steam to where he could sense Junpei, Kouji and Kouichi standing. "But it's really hard to explain when I have to speak at the top of my lungs."

"You wanted me to burn in that playground, Takuya," Kouji reminded him, and Takuya sighed.

"I wanted you to fall unconscious from the smoke so I could throw you out and have you leave me to my excruciating pain. Burning was never really intended."

"That doesn't really sound much better," Kouichi pointed out.

"Come on, guys! I'm hurting really badly here, and the water pounding against my body really isn't helping much!"

"Let's start with that in our line of questioning then, shall we?" Junpei began. "Why do you hurt? Fire can't hurt fire-types."

"Great point, Junpei, let's hook you up to an electrical socket and see how you cope," Takuya snapped back, then rolled his eyes. "The reason I'm in pain is because every last molecule of my body changed to turn me into a digimon! Molecules aren't supposed to do that, yanno!"

"Why are you a digimon?" asked Kouichi.

"That's what I would explain if you guys would stop torturing me long enough to let me think straight!" he shouted. "It's all connected to everything that's been happening! What are you, thick or something?"

For a moment, nobody spoke, before Kouji suddenly appeared through the steam and reached past Takuya to turn off the water. "He's right. This isn't getting us anywhere except wet and irritated."

"I'm so glad you thought of that now, instead of after you soaked the fire-type digimon to the point of water logging!" Takuya shouted, but Kouji just crouched down in front of him with a raised eyebrow.

"You could have just turned it off yourself."

"How could you guys trust me then?" he shot back, and they gazed at each other in silence for a moment, before Kouji sighed out a quiet laugh.

"You're definitely Takuya. No one else is that stupidly honest," he said, and gestured for Kouichi to toss over a towel. "So, what's this theory of yours?"

"We're not human," he said, accepting the towel to dry off his skin. "When Ophanimon chose us, and we joined with the Legendary Warriors, we didn't just get the ability to turn into digimon, we _became_ part digimon. It doesn't matter that we don't transform anymore, we still have that inside of us, and no matter how long we stay in the real world, we're always going to be digimon."

Kouji frowned, and the other two slowly walked through the dissipating steam to join him in crouching around Takuya. "You mean in spirit?"

"That too, but I was thinking more literally," he said, and sighed as he hung the towel over his sopping hair. "It's mostly little things. It's not exactly something I'm proud of, but Kouji was right before – ever since we got back, I see everything like a battle. I look around a classroom and all I see is collateral damage. I'm on a soccer field, and the other team is my enemy that I have to defeat."

"Okay…" Kouichi said slowly. "But isn't that just a you thing, not a digimon thing?"

"That's what I've always told myself, but the truth is that I never used to think like that," he said, and lowered his head in thought. "I mean, I've always been good at taking charge, but I think the battle thing is Agunimon. I was never a good soccer captain before we went to the digital world. Now I'd probably be a good general."

"I'm the same," Kouji said quietly. "The collateral damage thing. The people I have to protect if anything goes wrong."

"And I think… I'm not sure, but I think what's happening with us is that the more our bodies… develop, I guess is the word… the less human we are."

Kouichi and Kouji both frowned in confusion, and Junpei tilted his head. "How do you mean?"

"At first it was just more stupid little things, like I'd get cold in summer sometimes. Or how Kouji can't see in the dark, but Kouichi burns in the coolest weather," he said, then bit his lip, fangs pulling on the skin just enough to make it break. "The older we get, the more it affects us. It's starting to get into our heads. Like you, Junpei. Blitzmon was an insect, and so are you, the way you run around collecting stuff. And Kouichi's kinda acting like the lion Kaiserleomon was. He just sleeps and lazes around. What I did tonight, freaking out when Kouji said I was catching fire. Not being in control of my body reminded me of that time with Vrytramon, so it felt like he was accusing me. Attacking me. My response was fight or flight, and I didn't want to fight you guys."

"You think we're all losing part of what makes us human," Kouji surmised, and Takuya nodded.

"I think we're reverting to instincts. Izumi and – and you, tonight…" he said, and only Kouji noticed the barely visible blush on his cheeks. "It was possessive-defensive fighting because you wanted to talk to me when Izumi and I were… already talking."

"We've got to fix this, then," Kouji said firmly. "If we can't be all human, we should at least make sure we can control our own actions. Which means we have to find a way back to the digital world."

"Huh?" Junpei asked, blinking. "How'd you get that?"

"All this started there," explained Takuya. "We were completely human kids before we went, and the digital world didn't have anything to do with the real world. We created a kind of doorway, which is probably what's making us act like this."

"We have to close the door, or at least give it a doorhandle," Kouji added. "We can't do that here, where we're the only people who know anything about it. We need to talk to Ophanimon and the other Angels to fix this."

"The question is how do we get there?" Takuya murmured, folding his arms and closing his eyes in thought. "There's always the basement station –"

"No, I know you've tried to go back before," Kouji said, leaning back on his hands. "You lied about it, but I know you went there. Never worked before, did it?"

"No…"

"And without our digivices we can't contact anyone on the other side to get us there," he muttered. "I still have my old mobile phone, but it's _just_ a mobile phone – even the original text message Ophanimon sent disappeared."

"Maybe I have my digivice somewhere," Takuya suggested, opening his eyes to meet Kouji's gaze. "Agunimon could always just pull it out of nowhere. Maybe Flamon can too."

"But you weren't carrying your parents' old phone, I bet, and your new one certainly wasn't a digivice before you transformed, was it?

"Not that I know of," he said, and sighed again. "So we'll have to find a different way there… maybe because I'm a digimon now, the station will…" He trailed off, suddenly noticing Junpei and Kouichi staring at them.

Kouji looked up at his silence, then joined him in staring back at the others. "What?"

"It's so cool to watch you guys do that again," Junpei said, a broad grin splitting over his face.

"What?" Takuya asked, and Kouichi smiled.

"The dual leader. It was always really impressive when we were kids. Now you're a digimon and Kouji's tall and naturally imposing, it feels like we're in the presence of tacticians," he said, and then chuckled at Kouji's scowl. "You are!"

"Takuya comes up with all these ideas, Kouji points out the flaws, and together you always came up with these unbeatable strategies," Junpei added, winking. "The unstoppable team!"

"I was kind of scared when you started acting strangely," Kouichi admitted. "But watching you two now feels like old times."

"It's kinda comforting, huh?"

"Mm…"

Takuya and Kouji stared at them for a second, then exchanged glances and shrugged.

"We're back!" Izumi's voice called, followed by the sound of a slamming door. "We got all the food everyone asked for!"

"And pain killers for Big Brother Takuya!" Tomoki added. "Where are you guys?"

"Pain killers!" Takuya cried, bounding over Kouichi and Junpei in a single inhuman leap and galloping out the door on all fours. "Gimme, gimme, gimme!"

"Don't cover my brother's house in wet fur!" Kouji shouted, shoving himself to his feet and storming out after him.

"I don't _have_ fur!"

Junpei and Kouichi stared after them for a moment, then sighed and exchanged smiles. "I miss the old days," said Junpei, and Kouichi nodded.

"Me too."

* * *

><p>It had never been much of an issue for them to call on their digivices, back in the digital world. From the blurry way Takuya could remember purifying data as Agunimon, it had just required a very specific flick of the wrist. The last time he was in the real world as Flamon, he had just tugged it out from under one of his bracers. Pockets, or a lack thereof, had never really been important.<p>

So it was fairly interesting to discover that although his pants did have pockets, his mobile phone was not in any of them.

"Digivice!" he tried loudly, holding out his hand.

Sitting backwards on his brother's desk chair, Kouji shook his head. "Nothing."

"Uhm, uhm… okay, how about this? Creature corrupted by evil, be purified by this digivice!" he said, trying the wrist flick. Kouji slumped a little further into his crossed arms, shaking his head again.

After dinner and a few minutes of roundabout conversation on Takuya's theory, Izumi had loudly announced that Kouichi's house needed cleaning. After throwing her elbow into Junpei's gut for pointing out how spotless it was, she had then decided she needed to make a cake to thank Kouichi's mother for letting them stay there while she was at work, and hustled her injured Romeo outside so they could shop for ingredients. Catching the hint, Kouichi and Tomoki had collapsed in front of the television in melodramatic surrender, giving the other two space to disappear and try to come up with one of their old plans. They weren't having much luck.

"Come on!" Takuya cried, shoving his hand back down under his bracer to the pocket they'd discovered. "Digivice! Mobile phone! Communication device! Waste of technological space that keeps me up at night! _Come out_!"

"Acting like an idiot isn't going to help our situation any," said Kouji.

"I am not acting like an idiot!"

"You're losing control of your emotions," he said evenly, but Takuya just glared at him.

"No, I'm just frustrated because the digivices are so important and we can't access them. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

"Fine, is it?"

"Yeah!"

"Let's just tally up our situation, shall we?" he asked, holding up a hand to count down his fingers. "You're a digimon in the real world; the likelihood is that the rest of us are eventually going to join you; we're all losing our humanity; we can't contact Ophanimon; we have no way to the digital world; and no way to turn you back to a human being. This is fine?"

Takuya stared at him desperately for a moment, then rapidly shook his head. "Well, maybe not fine right now, but it will be! You gotta give these things time, y'know?"

Kouji just sighed and leaned back against the desk, staring up at the ceiling in search of inspiration. "We're so pathetic."

"Huh?"

"Us. All of us," he said, and rolled his head off to the side. "When we were younger, I thought we were so in control. Even if we were just stupid kids, we knew what we were doing. We always had some kind of plan. Some place to go next. I thought that was just us and I was so proud…"

"We always had someone leading the way, though, didn't we? Even if it was just Bokomon reading something from that history book of his," Takuya finished quietly, and Kouji looked over to see him drop into a crouch. Takuya offered a weak smile, one small fang glinting to show it was there. "Maybe we should find some little guy that talks too much and get him to show us the way to the digital world."

Kouji snorted and rolled his head back again. That was one of the things he'd originally hated, but grown to love about Takuya. No matter how complicated or terrifying the situation, the idiot always knew exactly what to say to make it seem simple and easy. When the rest of them were getting bogged down in the issues, Takuya would take the dumbest and most obvious solution and work with it. If it worked, then great, but even if it didn't, at least it dragged them out of their rut.

He'd grown out of it a little over the years, but that naive stupidity was still there sometimes. Just in jokes, or relationships, but still there. And it had saved Kouji more times than he could count.

He rubbed his hands together, watching Takuya trace the thin black lines on his feet.

The first few months back in the real world had been hell. Everything had just happened so fast – he'd hated his dad for lying to him about their family, wanted to make things up with his step-mother, had to meet his real mother and introduce Kouichi to their dad, and then all three of his parents were worried about him, saying his personality had changed, and they put both him and Kouichi in therapy… Even talking to Kouichi had been hard. In the digital world, he had known how to treat his brother. He was the strong one: the protector. He had to say the big emotional things because they could have been dead by the end of the day. But in the real world, with forever stretching out in front of them… and Kouji knew little brothers weren't supposed to be the protectors.

But then Kouichi had tracked Takuya down, and Kouji had talked to him. Well… argued with him, because Takuya said Kouji was being stupid about Kouichi. After he'd stormed off with Takuya laughing behind him, he'd realised he _was_ being stupid. And then talking to Kouichi had been easy again.

It had been the same with his dad. And avoiding the therapist. And then getting through middle school. Each time, all he'd had to do was go hang out with Takuya for a few hours and things would be simpler. Takuya made his life simpler.

"Hey… Kouji?"

He blinked, lifting his gaze from Takuya's hands to his eyes. "What?"

"Do you… do you ever think that…" He paused, glancing away once before looking at him again. "What do you think you're gonna do after school?"

He frowned, his brow furrowing. "What?"

"After high school. What do you think you're gonna do?"

"What the hell brought that on?"

"Just answer the question."

He stared at him blankly for a second, then sighed and sat back against the desk again. "I don't know. Go to university, maybe?"

"To do what?"

'I don't know," he said again, shifting uncomfortably. Talk of the future always reminded him exactly how long forever was. "I'll become an executive like Dad, maybe. I hadn't really thought about it."

"Yeah, you have," he said, and pulled his knees up to his chest, smiling at him. "You've lost sleep over it. I can tell."

"Shut up. We're sixteen, we're supposed to be planning for the future. We can't all think 'it'll work out somehow' like you."

Takuya's eyes narrowed, his smile broadening, and Kouji pulled back, recognising the look. He'd hit a mark. "What do you think you're gonna do?" he asked, and Takuya shrugged.

"I'm starting to think maybe I won't."

He unfolded his arms from the chair and sat up straight. "You won't go to university?"

"Maybe I won't get a job, either," he said lightly, and shifted so his chin was nestled in his hand. "Maybe I won't finish high school."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know… I don't think I'm really… important," he said, nodding to himself. "I can't see me really influencing much of society."

He shot to his feet, swinging one leg over the chair as he stared down at his friend. The last time he'd heard something like that, Kouichi had been staring at the knives in his kitchen and scaring the hell out of him. "What the hell are you thinking about, Takuya?"

He glanced up at him, his smile flaring to a grin. "Aw, Kouji, if I didn't know better, I'd think you cared about me!"

"Don't joke!" he snapped, and Takuya's smile disappeared. "What the hell are you thinking about?"

He didn't answer for a moment, just gazing at him silently, then turned his head away. "We're thinking so hard about turning me back to a human. But you know, I gotta wonder why. I mean, honestly… what are we gonna do with our lives as humans?" he asked, but he didn't look around as Kouji crouched down in front of him. "We're pointless. Redundant. We don't matter to the world."

"Is that an insult?"

"Shut up," he said wearily, ignoring him because they both knew it was a weak attempt to change the subject. "It's not so much with you guys. I mean, Tomoki's smart. Once he grows up and can hang out with people older than him without it looking weird, he'll be fine. Junpei's so driven and stuff that he's gonna make it big. Even Izumi… she's beautiful, she'll be able to get wherever she wants in life. And you, you've got grades, looks, money, talent… but me, I'm just…"

Kouji frowned, tilting his head as he tried to follow the fractured logic. "Takuya… you beat me in the national exams last month. And the game tonight was a pretty fair example of your whole athletic career."

He snorted, shaking his head with a smile, and Kouji stared at him blankly. After a moment, Takuya laughed and pushed himself to his feet. "Becoming a digimon tonight has reminded me of who we used to be, you know? We were warriors and fighters… we were important to an entire world! We're never going to be that here."

He frowned, catching the point, and Takuya jumped across the room to look out the window.

"I want to say we're all the same, but I'm not sure we are. You guys all have potential, but me, I'm just… I think I might be better off as a digimon."

Kouji felt his jaw clench, but he took a breath and made sure to keep his voice even as he spoke. "Digimon can't exist in the real world. You'd have to go to the digital world."

"So?" he asked, and looked at him over his shoulder. "Like I said, what am I gonna do here?"

"Takuya, I've thought about it, too," he said, struggling to unclench his fists. "I feel useless too, sometimes. I miss the digital world. And yeah, I believe you about us being part-digimon, which means we don't fully belong here. But if you stayed a digimon, you wouldn't just be leaving the real world. You'd be leaving the people here, too."

His smile didn't waver. "Well, yeah, but… I mean, think about it. Sure, I've got friends and family that care about me, and they'd miss me, but I don't make a huge difference to anyone. If I left, then people would be sad," he admitted, then spread his hands in a shrug. "But after a while, it wouldn't matter. If Takuya Kanbara ceased to exist… no one would give a damn."

He didn't think. He couldn't think. All he knew was that he had suddenly lurched to his feet and grabbed Takuya by the throat, slamming him back against the window. He didn't squeeze or try and choke him, but just held him there, glaring down into the shocked green eyes for what felt like hours.

"Kouji…?"

He blinked, then suddenly noticed what he was doing and gasped, stumbling backward. They stared at each other blankly for a moment, Kouji's jaw working silently as he tried to find the words. "I just… you… It's not…"

Takuya blinked rapidly, his hand rising to touch his neck, and Kouji stumbled back a few more steps to the door. He hesitated, then shook his head and spun around, yanking the door open and stepping through. He slammed it shut behind him, and Kouichi turned to look at him over the couch.

"Hey. Any luck?"

"What?" he yelped, and even Tomoki turned around to blink at him.

"Any ideas about what we're going to do now?" Kouichi asked blankly, raising an eyebrow. "Hello?"

"Uh – no," he said, and then coughed and stepped away from the door. "No, we didn't."

Tomoki bit his lip, and Kouichi narrowed his eyes. "Are you alright? You look really shaken up."

"I'm fine," he said firmly, and walked over to stand by Tomoki's seat. "What are you watching?"

"Duel Monster semi-finals," Tomoki said slowly, though Kouichi shot them both dirty looks for changing the subject. "No surprises on the competitors, but fun."

Kouji stared at the screen blankly, completely lost as to what he was supposed to be seeing, but accepting it as an alternative to thinking about what he'd just done. Two blondes were facing off across a wide platform, the white devices Kouji vaguely recognised as Solid Vision Projectors strapped to their wrists. Unlike Kouichi, who played the old card game at school, Kouji knew next to nothing about Duel Monsters. He knew it was mainly successful due to technology created by Kaiba Corporation, an empire with a hand in almost every single element of Japanese politics and international business, run by an insanely rich, young president.

"Katsuya Jounouchi and Rebecca Hopkins," Kouichi grudgingly pointed out. "And the other Duellists are Yami Motou and Mai Kujaku. Ten yen says Jounouchi kicks Rebecca off the duelling field," he added to Tomoki, who snorted.

"She could beat him when she was twelve. But I'll see your bet and double it on Jounouchi having a hissy fit before ten minutes've passed."

"No take on that one."

Kouji just sat down in silence, watching tiredly as the two Duellists swore and insulted each other, before the man finally slapped a card down on his projector and began the game. And that caught Kouji's attention.

Having never been a fan of Duel Monsters, Kouji had never seen Solid Vision technology in action before. But now he was looking at it… it wasn't just a hologram. It was a solid, beautiful creature; as real as the digimon back in his brother's room. The creature roared, and Kouji could only watch in fascination as the other duellist's hair was blown back, and she pointedly wiped some spittle from her cheek. He leaned forward, his eyes widening at the idea forming in his own mind.

"No way…"

* * *

><p>Standing around Kouichi's tiny apartment, after all the adventures they'd had as children, getting to Kaiba Corporation had seemed like the simplest of tasks. And the actual transport was. It had been a simple matter of catching the train to Shibuya and then finding the one heading for Domino City. Takuya had leapt from light to power pole and waited on the station roof for the right train, and there was nothing particularly odd about five teenagers catching a train out of Shibuya at seven o'clock at night.<p>

Everything had been going fine, to the point that their particular carriage had emptied as they went through the mountains, allowing Takuya to come in out of the wind once they reached an empty platform. He had curled up on one of the seats, emotional exhaustion wearing him down into sleep, and so all the others had to do was crowd around him whenever a new passenger joined them. It was fine until they left the mountains and more people started getting on, and the carriage became packed with tired commuters.

"I have such a bad feeling about this," Tomoki whispered, pulling further back as another university student tried to squeeze past.

"Calm down, Domino's only half an hour away," murmured Junpei.

"Half an hour is still too long to be like this," Kouji muttered, forced to jump up onto the seat and stand over Takuya's sleeping form to keep from getting shoved. He kicked his friend awake, ignored the resulting glare and bent over to whisper, "See if you can get back up on top of the train at the next station."

"Are you kidding?" he hissed back, staring past Junpei's arm at the carriage. "With this many people? Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"You shouldn't have come in here in the first place!"

"You try lying on top of a speeding train for three hours!"

"I'll –!"

Whatever he had intended to say was lost as the train jolted and began to slow, causing several standing commuters to stumble. One exhausted student tripped on her heel with a squeak, but no one had time to catch her before she fell into Junpei, knocking them both to the ground in a tangled heap and revealing Takuya to the entire staring carriage.

They froze, and Takuya shoved Kouji back, leaping up onto a pole in preparation for a quick escape as he waited for the first scream.

"Grow up, would you?"

They all blinked, staring at the disgusted young businessman sitting across the aisle. "Sorry?"

"Solid Vision scares are an insult to everyone involved. Grow up."

"Seriously, man, it stopped being funny like five years ago," a male student added, and then leaned down to help his friend to her feet.

"You really should have tried it on a train going to a different city," she agreed, grinning at them. "Domino started the Solid Vision scares, guys. Try Shinjuku."

Kouji and Takuya exchanged glances, but it was Tomoki that laughed, stepping up to speak. "Ah, no, we're not trying to scare anyone! My friend was trying out a new card and it got stuck in the Duel Disk. We just can't get the Solid Vision to disperse!"

"Sorry everyone, we didn't mean to bother you," Kouichi added loudly, and the passengers turned away, disgruntled. The only two left were the university students, the female of which crept over to peer at Takuya.

"You know, no matter how old it gets, I'm always impressed by Kaiba Corporation technology. The AI on these things is simply amazing," she said, and then giggled, winking at him. "You're a cute one, aren't you? What kind of Duel Monster is he?"

"A Flamon," Kouichi said, before anyone else could speak and blow their cover. "He's a fire type, so of course he glows in the dark, which means Kouji can't sleep with his disk in his room."

"Mm… I remember from middle school," the male student said, sighing to himself. "I had the biggest crush on the Injection Angel Lily, and I barely ever took her card out of my disk. It was a good thing I studied hard – I barely got any sleep."

"That's why we're going to Domino," Tomoki explained, "to get it fixed."

"Understandable, but you guys wanna be careful walking around Domino City with that," he said, nodding to Takuya. "That city's been torn apart by Solid Vision scares so many times that some people get violent over them. You should take your Duel Disk out of your bag and put it where people can see it, at least. Otherwise you're likely to be arrested for disturbing the peace."

"_Arrested_?" Izumi cried, and the students shrugged.

"Hey, they've got a whole police department dedicated to this stuff."

"What do you mean, 'torn apart'?" asked Junpei.

"All kinds of stuff," the girl said wearily. "The first one was ten years ago, just after that Battle City thing. The whole world was affected, but Domino got it worst – thousands of Duel Monsters appeared all over the city. Screwed up everything from traffic to internet systems."

"Things only got worse over the years," her friend continued. "I even heard about one guy, a coupl'a years back, that went around murdering people with them."

"Sounds like an interesting place," Kouji said carefully, gripping the strap of his backpack as the students grimaced.

"Yeah, well, if I could get the same education someplace else, I would, but Kaiba University is the best for computer sciences," he said. "Domino's a dangerous place, and most of it surrounds stuff that's supposed to be a game. You guys should watch yourself."

"Yeah, well, we don't scare so easy," Izumi said, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

"It's not always about being scared," the female student said quietly, and the conversation drifted on to other horror stories of gaming culture.

It was entertaining enough to keep them occupied for the rest of the trip, and carried on out onto the platform, where the students showed them a map and the way to Kaiba Corporation. Unfortunately, their warning about Solid Visions was soon justified, as they had barely left the station before Kouji had to be dragged away from a violent young man that threatened to kill him for Takuya's very presence. Several other people jeered and shouted threats as they walked down the street, until Kouji began to visibly twitch at so much as a raised voice.

"I'm thinking I should be keeping to the rooftops," Takuya said, watching a group of girls forcefully pull their male friend away from Kouji. "We're getting way too much attention."

"Why do they keep thinking he's mine, anyway?" he demanded, staring around at the others as they walked. "The train I could understand, but now… There's a bunch of us – why blame me specifically?"

"You're carrying the backpack," Izumi said sensibly.

"And you guys are walking side by side," Kouichi added. "Not to mention Takuya keeps stepping in front of you when someone starts in on you."

"Then stop it!" he snapped, and Takuya scowled, folding his arms over his chest.

"Yeah, like I'm gonna just stand by when someone attacks you," he said defensively. "And besides, I said I should come on my own! You're the one who demanded he come!"

"That is so pathetic…"

They all turned to look at the pair of girls walking behind them, and the first, a pretty little thing with long blonde hair, made a face that could have passed for apologetic if not for her smirk. "Sorry. We didn't mean for you to overhear."

"No, you've got something to say," Kouji said irritably, turning to face her. "What's your problem?"

"Well… it's just kinda sad when people program their Duel Monsters to talk back," she said, and the other, a tall one with multi-coloured streaks, bit her lip to hide a smile.

"But then, considering the monster, I guess we shouldn't really be surprised."

They all blinked, and then looked around at Takuya, before Kouji turned his glare back to the girls. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"A shirtless cat boy?" she asked, looking Takuya up and down before licking her lips to hide a laugh. "Can we say 'furry shotocomplex'?"

"Can't get much more perverted than that," the blonde agreed, her grin only widening as Kouji's face flared up in a heated blush. "It's no wonder you programmed it to talk back. It's probably the only date you can get!"

Kouji blinked rapidly, his throat working in embarrassment, and Kouichi snarled, leaping forward only to be caught by Junpei and Tomoki's tight grip on his arms. "Say that again, you little –!"

"Kouichi!" Izumi cried.

"You can't just insult my brother like that, you don't even know him!" he shouted, and Takuya quickly stepped in front of him, holding up his hands in a placating gesture.

"Calm down, you know they're just blowing steam!" he hissed. "Are you really going to hit some stupid girls over something that ridiculous?"

He pursed his lips, obviously considering it, before he huffed and stepped back, glaring at nothing as the girls walked past with one final giggle. The group hesitated, then looked around at Kouji, who had taken off the backpack and was silently removing his jacket.

"Put it on," he stated, shoving it into Takuya's chest.

"What –"

"Now!" he ordered, and Takuya flinched, then obeyed before he could even notice what he was doing. It fell almost to his knees, but Kouji still yanked it shut and zipped it right up to the collar, before pushing him around to Junpei's side and picking up his backpack again. "I am not going to look like a furry shotocom."

"So you'd rather I did?" Junpei complained, and everyone but Takuya laughed.

"Look, I get the problem," he told Kouji, plucking at the jacket collar. "But digimon generally wear the clothes they're programmed with for a reason. What if I burn this?"

"It's fine," Kouji said darkly.

"But my tail –"

"I'd rather you burn my favourite jacket than force me to keep staring at your naked chest!" he snapped, and Kouichi bit his lip, looking between the two as Takuya's hackles began to rise.

"Excuse me for not having a shirt on my back! You should be grateful I've got this much!"

Kouji flushed again, and the others exchanged glances, unsure of whether this was the start of a personal argument they should step away from or a symptom of the animalistic fights they'd been having. They weren't given time to decide before Kouji recovered. "Is it so much to ask that you, for once in your life, think about how you look to other people?"

"I'm not exactly human right now, I don't have that option!" he shouted, stepping around Junpei to glare at him outright. "What does it matter to you, anyway? Those girls were just talking; everyone here knows they were wrong!"

"Dammit, Takuya! Our cover is that you're a toy that does not speak! Shut up!"

"You're the one freaking out over nothing!"

"It is not nothing! You couldn't go unnoticed when you were human, how do you think it is now you're red and half naked?"

"Okay, what the hell is this really about?" he demanded, straining up in the vain hope he might even reach Kouji's shoulder. "Is this about before? If you've got a problem with me in either form, you should just come out and say it right now! I'm sick of this dancing around."

Kouji made a motion as if he really did want to strangle his friend, but eventually just spun away, shoving his hands in his pockets instead. "Just go hang out on a rooftop somewhere."

"Fine!" he spat, and then leapt straight up and out of sight.

For a moment, nobody moved, all of them staring at Kouji worriedly. They all knew Kouji had heard much worse from strangers that saw him with Kouichi sometimes; it was really strange for him to be so upset.

Junpei opened his mouth to comment, but before he could even cough for attention, a singed jacket pelted Kouji in the back of the head. The shot rocked Kouji forward, forcing him to stumble a few steps, before he grabbed the jacket and spun around, glaring up into the dark ceiling of artificial light.

"Canine!" Takuya's voice shouted, and Kouji snarled, gripping the jacket in a twisting fist.

"Pyro!"

"Idiots," Izumi finished for them both, and the others all sighed before heading off, not really caring whether they followed or not.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue...?<em>]


	4. The Chosen Ones

_**Rebooted – Chapter Three**_

The Chosen Ones

**TRUFAX: **Ten years post Yugioh canon, five years post Digimon Frontier canon, so a fair amount has happened in both worlds. Please hand wave any problems you may see arising from this.

* * *

><p>Various people look at life in different ways. Some call it a stage; others see themselves as characters in a novel; certain films tell us it is nothing short of a box of chocolates. But many people, people who face challenges everyday from saving the world to balancing their budget, say life is just a game.<p>

Yuugi Mutou had always been one of those people. He had once thought his life was a constant game of Chinese Checkers: he was just jumping over each obstacle as it came, always alone. Then it was Poker, as he tried to hold up a brave front with nothing but junk cards in his hand, betting all he had for a kitty of friends. Then it became Chess, as he and an army of friends fought to protect and serve his king.

Right now it was poker again, but this time, the wager was much scarier. If Yuugi couldn't manage a good hand this time, he was going to have to lecture at that damn duelling academy for an entire semester.

"Come on, Yuugi," said the raven-haired young man sitting opposite him. "How many cards do you want?"

He frowned, staring at his hand. He had a four, five, two sixes and a nine. He looked up over his cards to the other remaining players. Seto, the one currently winning for the night, stared straight back at him with his usual small smirk. Beside him was his brother Mokuba, who was acting as Dealer and getting impatient. Hiroto Honda, the youngest detective in Domino's unique Holographic Investigation Unit, was sitting in the next chair, having already folded and now cracking open his fourth beer for the night. Beside him was Yuugi's best friend Jounouchi, sweating over his cards and chewing his lip. Yuugi's partner, Yami, was sitting to his left, leaning his chin on the back of his hand as he waited with the infinite patience of one whose cards could kick them all off the table.

"Two cards," Yuugi announced finally, tossing one of his sixes and the four onto the table.

"Two cards it is," Mokuba said, rolling his eyes at how long it had taken. "Yami?"

"One," he said, flicking a single card into the pile and picking up the one Mokuba slid toward him.

"Raise four chips," Seto announced, picking up some of his small fortune of discs to throw into the kitty.

"Dealer folds," Mokuba announced.

"Call," Jounouchi said, throwing his own chips in, and Yuugi did the same in silence.

"See and raise six more," Yami said, moving a whole stack into the middle of the table.

"Call," Seto agreed, and the other two joined him in pushing the desired chips in. "Three tens."

Jounouchi swore and threw his cards down, and Honda snickered into his bottle.

"When are you going to learn not to go against people destined to win every game they play?"

"I'm gonna beat these guys one day!"

"Right," Yami said, smirking as he lay out his hand. "Four twos. And that, oh Lord of Dragons, means you will not be using me in any commercials for the next generation Duel Disk."

"Uh, uh, uh!" Yuugi said, holding up his finger and making his partner twitch. "You shouldn't make assumptions before you've seen everyone's hand."

Yami twitched again, slowly turning to look at him. "You don't."

"I have a five of Diamonds," Yuugi said, laying out each card in turn. "And a six of diamonds. A seven, an eight, a nine…"

Seto and Yami both levelled him with cold, irritated glares, but Yuugi just grinned and leaned forward to take the kitty. "So I believe that's _me_ Seto won't be taking advantage of, this time!"

"Oh, for the days of him being the sweet and innocent aibou that could be taken advantage of with a smile, eh, Yami?" said Honda, and Yuugi made a point of cackling as he piled up his winnings.

"I'm warning you, aibou," Yami growled. "If I have to spend so much as a second in front of those damn cameras, I swear I'll…"

He trailed off, but it took the others several seconds before they noticed and looked up. It often took Yami a few moments to think up a plausible threat against Yuugi, but one look made it clear he had completely forgotten what he had been about to say. Yami's eyes had unfocussed, staring at something none of them could see, his brow furrowed in far-off concentration.

Yuugi sat up straight, watching him worriedly. "The other me?"

Yami blinked and refocussed on Yuugi's face, then shoved himself to his feet. "There's Darkness close by."

"What?"

A shrill beep cut the conversation off there, and Mokuba slid his chair away from the table to reach his desk, instantly transforming their rubbish-strewn gambling room back into the luxurious office of the Vice President of the illustrious Kaiba Corporation. Mokuba Kaiba pushed his Dealer's Visor up onto his head and leaned over to type a quick command into his computer. He gazed at a readout of unintelligible numbers for a second, then sighed. "Someone's trying to access the building through an air duct on the first floor."

Jounouchi and Honda groaned, but Yuugi bit his lip and looked up at Yami, who was pulling a deck of Duel Monster cards from the holster on his belt.

"Which area?" Seto asked casually, collecting the playing cards for reshuffle.

"Accounting. The sensors say they're small, too. 'Bout Yuugi's size," Mokuba added. "Teenagers or martial artists. Do you want me to send security, or –?"

"At least one of them is Dark," Yami said, and Mokuba shrugged, pushing away from the computer again. "I'll deal with them."

"I'll come too," Yuugi said, standing up. "Seto? Want to defend your castle?"

"You sound as if you expect something less."

* * *

><p>"Remind me again why we didn't just wait until morning and come through the front door?" Junpei asked, watching the flickering light of Takuya's tail as he prowled the edges of the darkened office they had just entered.<p>

"Because we need to look at a bunch of top secret files," Tomoki said simply.

"And if we just walked into the front office and asked, they'd kick us right back out on the street," Kouji said, before he walked straight into a desk and swore. Kouichi sighed, reaching over to grab his brother's bag and drag him back onto a clear path.

"Okay, next question," said Izumi. "How are we going to read said files? I don't know about you guys, but I don't know anything about hacking."

"Of course we don't know how to hack. We don't need to!" Takuya said, his voice coming from somewhere beyond the door they were walking through. "In a place this high tech, everything has to be accessed by encrypted ID cards, right? And there's always some obsessive workaholic hanging around after hours. We just have to find him, get his card, and search his computer!"

"Right," Kouji drawled, and he only just avoiding walking into the doorframe by Kouichi yanking him a step to the right. "And how do you propose we go about finding this guy, let alone stealing his ID card?"

"I'm a scary mutant creature with fangs and horns," Takuya said flippantly. "Geeks and nerds are total wimps – he'll faint the second he sees me!"

"_Sword of Sealing_!"

The sudden shout came out of nowhere, and Takuya only had time to flinch before a shining silver sword erupted out of the darkness behind him, shooting forward to catch one of his braces and throw him back against the wall. He cried out, struggling to pull it out, but it had dug through the leather and was pinning him in a way he was sure impossible.

"Takuya!" cried Kouji, and the others lurched forward to help.

"Flamon!"

"_Swords of Revealing Light_!"

The second shout was even quicker than the first, and the chosen children had to stop and stiffen as all of them but Kouichi were suddenly caged by a ring of glowing golden swords. He shouted and started forward, only to gasp as a very real, very dangerous looking blade appeared in front of him and came back to settle by his neck. He froze, gritting his teeth at the feeling of a warm body stepping up behind him.

"Kouichi!" Kouji shouted, but when he rushed toward him, he hit something in the space between two of the golden swords, and was thrown back into Junpei's arms. He clenched his fists, staring at the lights, but nothing revealed itself, even when Izumi and Tomoki ran forward to pound against the invisible barrier.

"Let Kouichi go!" Izumi ordered.

"You coward!" Takuya yelled, struggling with the sword still pinning him to the wall. "Quit hiding in the darkness! Come out and show yourself!"

"Those who crawl through air ducts and walk in the darkness have no right to find fault with my actions," the voice said evenly. "Besides, it shouldn't bother our mutual friend here. He is a child of darkness, after all…"

Kouichi flinched, staring out of the corner of his eye as if he could see the person holding him captive. "How'd you know that?"

"You can't hide that sort of thing from the Dark King," the voice purred, only to be interrupted by a derisive snort.

"Dark King?" the new voice repeated, clearly amused. "King of Games, King of Duellists, Japan's hottest twenty-something 2005, now Dark King? Anything else we should add to the list?"

"Well, that ruined the dramatic atmosphere," a third voice said cheerfully, before light suddenly flooded the hallway, blinding everyone for a good three seconds before their eyes could adjust.

They were in the middle of a large, steel hallway, with three young men standing around the separated group. Kouichi was cringing away from the light under the threat of an oddly alluring looking man with dark skin and wild hair, dressed in black leather from his dog-collar to his heeled boots. Less than two metres from Takuya, what looked like a teenager with equally wild hair but sloppy denim clothing was standing with his hands in his jeans pockets, gazing around the captured group in interest. The last and tallest stranger was recognisable from the thousands of advertisements he'd been on for the last ten years. Seto Kaiba, teenage gaming president turned international-power executive, stood in front of them in all his white-suited glory, one fine eyebrow raised at the multitude of swords surrounding his hallway.

"Normally I'd have a problem with the surprise attack," the short one said, giving Takuya a look. "But that comment about geeks being wimps was really low, and completely unfounded."

"Huh?"

"If _I_ were to make a comment," Seto Kaiba said, turning to look at the dark young man, "I would say your obsession with conjuring swords is an extremely Freudian overcompensation."

"He who builds hundreds of tall, dominating skyscrapers is in no position to comment," he replied shortly, and the short one slapped a hand to his forehead. The 'dark king' then turned back to Kouichi. "It's interesting. Someone with your amount of power shouldn't be able to call on a true Duel Monster without a Duel Disk at the very least."

"Well, to play Devil's Advocate, this isn't a Duel Monster," the youngest stranger said, pointing at Takuya. "And even if he was, he doesn't look particularly powerful."

"Hey, shut up!" Takuya cried, abandoning his futile attempts to become unpinned to instead flail his free arm. "I could fry you to a crisp! And if I ever get to the Digital World, I'd –"

"Flamon!" snapped Kouji, and Takuya flinched, shutting his mouth with an audible click.

"Sorry," the guy said gently, and they all blinked as he bowed. "I didn't mean to offend you, Flamon-san."

"Did you just call that monster 'san'?" Kaiba asked, amused.

He ignored him. "We didn't mean to scare anyone; it's just that most people that come into Kaiba Corporation through ways other than the front door tend to be the type of people we don't want coming in at all. It's nice to meet you, by the way; my name is Yuugi Mutou –"

"Did you say Yuugi Mutou?" Tomoki asked, and Kouji raised an eyebrow when several of his friends began to stare.

"_The_ Yuugi Mutou?" Kouichi asked. "The genius gamer Yuugi Mutou?"

The guy blushed, shaking his head, but Tomoki had already cried out again, pointing at the person holding Kouichi captive. "And you're Yami Motou! The world gaming champion!"

Yuugi laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "Well… yeah…"

"Much as your modesty amuses me, aibou, we are trying to threaten these people," the dark guy pointed out, but Yuugi just waved him off.

"Come on, the other me. It's pretty obvious they're not trying to do anything bad. They're just kids!"

"Oi! Who're you calling a kid?"

"Um, Yuugi-san, Kaiba-sama, Motou-sama…" Tomoki said breathlessly, when it became obvious they were ignoring Takuya's screech. "We're really not trying to do anything bad. We just need to talk to somebody from Kaiba Corporation."

"That's right!" said Izumi, raising her fists. "We need help for our friend Flamon!"

"Yeah, and it's not like anyone would take us seriously if we just asked," Junpei pointed out. "We figured it would just be easier if we came and took the information ourselves."

"See? Kids!" Yuugi said happily, gesturing as if that proved his point. "Perfectly aware of their situation and trying to find a way around getting screwed over! Okay, so it didn't work, but it sounds exactly like something we would've cooked up when we were in high school!"

"Which also explains why it didn't work," Kaiba added dryly.

"It _doesn't_ explain how this one got a hold of dark power," Yami said, drawing his sword closer to Kouichi's neck. "I don't like it when people have power they can't understand."

"I do understand it!" Kouichi yelped, then paused and added, "Kinda."

"But we can explain it!" cried Junpei.

"We can?" Tomoki whispered, and he nodded.

"Yeah! It's related to what Flamon is!" he said. "Same as I'm a child of Thunder, and Izumi's Wind, and Kouji's Light, and –"

"Light?" Yuugi repeated, blinking. "Yami?"

The dark one paused, his eyes narrowing at Kouji, before he suddenly stopped and lowered his blade. After another moment, the glowing swords of energy vanished, and the twins ran for each other, Kouji gripping Kouichi's arms and spinning him around to guard him from Yami's sword. No longer pinned, Takuya leapt up and over, coming to crouch at the head of the group on all fours as he glared at the three men.

"I think we need some more information," Yami said quietly, his blade disappearing in a stream of dark shadows.

* * *

><p>"A Digital World?"<p>

Kouichi sighed as he spread his hands, trying to find the words to explain everything that had happened five years ago. Takuya had gotten frustrated with every attempt he had made on the way up in the elevator, ending in him just skulking along beside Kouji. Tomoki had tried, when they reached the top floor, only to find himself star struck every time one of the three men had looked at him. Izumi had come over remarkably giggly, which irritated Junpei into silence, and Kouji had quite pointedly made no attempt to speak, leaving Kouichi to try, no matter how imposing Seto Kaiba's blank stare could be.

They had finally made it to a large room that, under all the rubbish and bottles of alcohol, could have once been a very lavish office. Three other young men were inside, but they only blinked at Takuya once before calmly asking who the kids were. They were all proving disturbingly blasé about it all.

"I know it's hard to believe, but there's another world out there. A digital one, where anything is possible," he said, and then paused for any snorts of disbelief. When none were forthcoming, he coughed and continued. "Five years ago, all the pure-hearted children in Tokyo got a text message on their mobile phone, asking if they wanted to 'start'. We said yes, and followed the message to Shibuya train station, which somehow took us to the digital world. Apparently we six were compatible with digimon from an ancient legend, because we were allowed to stay, while all the other children were sent home."

The adults exchanged glances, but Yami was the one to tilt his head back in question. "Legend."

"Less of a legend and more history," Takuya said quietly, his voice low as he gazed at his claws. "There was a great war between the human- and beast-type digimon. It lasted for years, until it was finally stopped by the angel Lucemon, who brought the two sides together under his lawful rule. But Lucemon became corrupted by power, and fell to evil, until ten powerful warriors rose to stop him."

"Warriors?"

"One for each of the elements," he said, and looked up from under his brows to meet Yuugi's gaze. "Fire, Steel—"

"—Air, Water—" added Izumi.

"—Snow—" interjected Tomoki.

"—Thunder, Earth—" Junpei added.

"—Wood, Light—" murmured Kouji.

"—and Darkness," Kouichi finished. "They joined together as one and sealed Lucemon, leaving three angels to take his place."

"But then one of those angels was corrupted by Lucemon's lingering hatred and fear, and the whole thing started again," said Takuya. "So we were called to reclaim the warriors' spirits and recreate history."

Kaiba snorted, and the teenagers all looked up, but Yami didn't wait for him to elaborate on his amusement. "I assume you won?"

"Wait, wait, wait!" cried Honda, waving his arms to keep them from answering. When they stopped and looked up, he pointed at Kouichi. "You said 'children', which implies 'human children'. What's the fox on two legs supposed to be?"

"Hey! Who're you calling a 'what'?" Takuya demanded, but Kouji gripped his shoulder to keep him from jumping up. "I may not be human right now, but I'm still a person, you jerk! That's '_who_'!"

"Calm down, hothead," Kouji said wearily, though he didn't bother to hide his smirk as he turned back to Honda. "He's usually our mostly human friend Takuya, but lately we've been noticing some… odd habits of ours, which finally came to a head tonight when Takuya set a playground on fire and emerged as Flamon."

"Odd habits?" Honda asked. "A playground on fire?"

"We can't always control our actions anymore," Izumi said quietly, folding her hands between her knees. "At first we thought it was just me and Takuya, but today we saw it in Kouji, and we think it's been happening to a lesser extent with the others too."

"What happens when you can't control yourself?" he asked, leaning forward. "Are me and my friends in danger, here?"

"No. It's more harmless, usually, unless something sets it off," she said. "It's in the way we think and do things; how we act with people. Nothing really dangerous, until we start fighting each other like Kouji and I did tonight. The main reason we want to fix this now is because of Flamon."

"Which is why we're here," Kouji added. "It follows that we should go back to the digital world and figure out how to turn him back."

"But getting there is a different matter," Kouichi continued. "It's easy enough to know something exists, but to find it in a tangible sense is a whole other matter."

"That's true," Jounouchi said thoughtfully. "To get to another world, you usually need some kind of passage way. How'd you do it the first time?"

The teenagers stared, amazed at the casual response, before Junpei managed to stammer out the answer, "A digimon made the trip through a passage that was already there."

"Oh yeah…?"

"So you came to us because we're the foremost company in technological and digital research," Mokuba surmised. "Pretty stupid to think you could hack our files, but the logical solution."

"So you'll help us?" asked Izumi, and Tomoki leaned forward until he was on the edge of his seat.

"Will you send us to the digital world?"

The older group grimaced, Yuugi, Jounouchi and Honda exchanging reluctant glances. Yami and Kaiba set their hands on their hips in almost identical movements as Mokuba laughed outright. "Don't be ridiculous! Our research is purely practical! We're not interested in anything as fanciful as other worlds; not even digital ones!"

"Hey, I thought you believed us!" Takuya shouted, and this time Kouji didn't bother holding him back. He leapt to his feet, fists clenched and fangs bared. "What, you think we're crazy or something?"

"Of course we don't, Flamon-san," Yuugi said gently, holding his hands up. "And we're not saying we won't help you. It's just that you need to understand that Kaiba Corporation can't."

"What do you mean?" asked Kouichi.

"That sounds more promising than it should," added Kouji, and the adults grimaced again as he looked between them. "Kaiba Corporation can't… but you guys can?"

"Maybe," Yuugi said slowly.

"What are you talking about?" Yami asked, raising an eyebrow. "How could we help these datamon?"

"Digimon," they all absently corrected, and Yami waved them off.

"My powers have nothing to do with technology," he pointed out. "Even with your full power and control, I can only open a portal to the Monster World, by _going through_ the Dark Realm. These are things I was born and resurrected to control. Data – Digi – whatever-mon are things I've never even heard of."

"But there is a Dark Area in the digital world," Kouichi argued, leaning forward to catch their attention again. "And you said I have dark power similar to yours. So maybe you can get through that way!"

"Dark Realm, not Dark Area," Yami corrected. "And 'similar' is not 'same'."

"But he has a point," said Yuugi, putting a hand to his chin in thought. "You're thinking mathematically, the other me, not in abstract. I think we could maybe do something."

"How so?"

"Well, you can't open a portal to a digital world. Seto definitely can't. Kouichi-kun and his friends can't either. But if we use all three, we might stand a chance," Yuugi said, and then held up three fingers to tick off. "Mokuba-kun, you told me once about Unintentional Artificial Intelligence?"

"UAI is a standard part of solid vision technology," said Kaiba, and Mokuba nodded.

"We have to throw out millions of data streams when we're creating life-like holograms. Movements, reactions, expressions, sound effects… we don't want a lot of it, so we chuck it out. But all our technology is designed to reform in the case of a virus, so the junk data sometimes forms programs on its own. That is, Artificial Intelligence we didn't design."

"That might be what started this digital world thing, right?" asked Honda. "Junk data from all your artificial intelligence programs, combined with the freaky magic that seems to exist in everything we touch…"

"And a new world is created from a computer screen," finished Yami, raising his eyebrows in interest. "Odd, but plausible."

"Right. And as this world develops, it begins to rely and build upon the world that creates it," Yuugi continued, and he gestured at the teenagers. "Since our power has been so tightly involved with Kaiba Corporation's technology, it might have been mimicked."

"You think my Spirit is somehow related to Yami-san's magic?" asked Kouichi.

"Essentially." He paused, glancing at Yami before he continued. "The other me is, in some ways, an incarnation of Darkness. He's much stronger than you, Kouichi-kun, but I think there might be a connection between you. There are lots of things the other me can do, including opening doorways to the dimensions he's connected to."

"Like the Dark Area!" Tomoki cried.

"If that's for real, it'd be awesome!" shouted Junpei.

"They're nice dots, aibou, but they make a line, not a picture," Yami said. "I can open doors to the Dark Realm in Dark Games. Neither of which are being used here."

"No, but you're forgetting the Millennium Items," said Yuugi. "Just think about it. The Millennium Scales could find the essence of the Digital World in Kouichi-kun's mind, and it'll be easy enough to access because he's got darkness in his soul. Then we put Flamon-san in front of a screen of Unintentional AI and use the Millennium Key to search his soul. Like the digital world, he's a product of junk data – when he senses his home, his soul will react. Then you use the Millennium Puzzle to combine your knowledge from Kouichi-kun's mind with the junk data's doorway to the digital world, and you can open a doorway easy!"

There was a long pause as everyone in the room stared at him, the teenagers all lost and his friends confused. After a few seconds, Jounouchi sighed and leaned over to knock Yuugi on the head. "You break my brain."

"Going into their minds?" Kouji asked, leaning forward. "I don't like the sound of that."

"Okay, seriously, I think we need to know who you guys really are," said Izumi, but they all went ignored as Yuugi just stared at Yami.

"Theoretically," Yami said slowly, "it could work."

"I know it's different than how we usually use the Items, but –"

"It's not just that, aibou!" he cried, throwing up his hand. "It's the risk! Who knows what's going on in the minds of these children –"

"We're not children!" Kouji snapped. "We've saved worlds."

"Who hasn't?" he snapped back, and they all flinched as he scowled at them. "Listen to me. You're all very young and stupid; you think you're invincible. But you're not. None of us are! I will not risk any of our lives and souls for the sake of some world that doesn't even exist in real terms!"

"It does exist!" Takuya shouted, and Kouji didn't have time to keep him from jumping to his feet again. "The digital world is my home!"

"Your home is wherever your _human_ parents live," Yami shot back. "It's already corrupted your mind like this. You never should have been involved with it in the first place!"

"Who the hell are you to tell me what I should risk and for what?" demanded Takuya. "The digital world is real, and I am going there! I'm asking for your help, not your permission!"

"You stupid little –!"

"Yami!"

They both jumped, Yuugi's voice shocking them out of the argument. They turned to look at him, but he just narrowed his eyes at Yami, folding his arms in barely restrained anger.

"Ancient Pharaoh or split personality? A card tournament or a destiny to be fulfilled?" he asked, his voice low and warning. "Don't talk like we're better than them."

Yami just stared at him for a second, straightening back to his full height. "Aibou…"

"It doesn't matter what should or could have happened. Right now, Flamon-san needs to go back to the digital world. It's not up to us to say what risks that's worth."

"That's right," Takuya said, glaring at Yami's glance. "It's just data to you, but the digital world is a part of me. Whether it's to become human again or just to go back, I'll risk everything to go home."

"I want to help Takuya get back to normal," Kouichi said, pushing up to his feet with a nod.

"We all do," Izumi agreed, and Junpei and Tomoki nodded.

Kouji frowned, then sighed and stood up, clapping Takuya on the shoulder. "Risk or not, we'll go back to the digital world."

Yami stared at them, then looked around to meet Yuugi's frown. He hesitated, then huffed out an irritated breath. "Fine. We'll try out your theory."

* * *

><p>"So, um, not to be ungrateful and all," Izumi began, glancing between Yami and Honda apprehensively, "but I really have to ask again: who are you?"<p>

"It's only been an hour; there's no excuse to have forgotten our names already," Honda said, but she just grimaced at his smile.

Only minutes after Yami had agreed to help the Chosen Children, Yuugi had rushed out of the room, promising to return with something called 'the Millennium Items'. Unfortunately, that somehow meant that until he returned, none of them could actually do anything. Kaiba had pulled out a laptop and begun tapping away at its keys, and Tomoki, Junpei and Kouichi had settled down with Jounouchi and Mokuba for an in-depth discussion of the last Duel Monsters tournament. Kouji was sitting on the couch, listening in silent amusement, and Takuya had slumped down beside him, asleep again. That left Izumi with no one to really talk to, except Yami and Honda, both of who made her nervous enough to need a few good answers.

"Look, we told you our story, but you still haven't explained why all of you—perfectly rational, intelligent adults—are so okay with it. Or why you keep talking about Millennium things and Yami-san being embodied darkness… What's with that, anyway?" She paused, looking between them again. "Who exactly are you?"

"We're not perfectly rational adults, let's just clear that right up," Honda said firmly, but then ruined the effect by grinning at Yami's smirk. "Not only are most of us in the gaming profession, but we spend way too much time risking our lives to be perfectly rational."

"We have destinies, just like you do," said Yami. "We've just been fulfilling them for a lot longer than you have. In varying degrees."

"Okay," she said, grinning at this small triumph of information. "So what is your destiny?"

"You don't want to know," said Honda. "It's usually got a lot to do with the fate of the entire world hinging on the draw of a card, which is always tough to deal with. It took me two years and… how many possessions?"

Yami lowered his drink to give that some thought, before shrugging and raising it again. "I believe it was four out-of-body experiences, but only two actual possessions."

"We'll go with four out-of-body experiences before I started just accepting the reality of Yami and Yuugi's screwed up life. Lives. Whichever."

Izumi stared at them blankly for a second, then pointed at Honda. "So _you_ don't have a destiny?"

"Of course I do. It's just not as influential on a global scale," he said, and gave her a steady look. "Just because I don't fight or make world-altering decisions doesn't mean I don't do anything. These guys might save the world, but I save people in it."

She blinked, then set her hands on her hips. "That doesn't tell me anything."

"We know," Honda said smugly.

"I exist by and for the purpose of controlling Dark Power," Yami said calmly. "As to why and how, you don't need to know."

"Does it have anything to do with the Solid Vision scares?" she asked, watching Honda for a reaction, but he didn't even blink.

"On occasion," he said, and Izumi huffed in frustration. She hated mysterious guys.

After a few moments of glaring at them, only to be met with amusement, she threw up her hands and turned away, stalking over to sit on the couch beside Takuya. There was no winning against people like that; they got more arrogant and harder to talk to the more frustrated you became. She frowned, looking over Takuya's head to Kouji. He was like that, and it was getting worse as he got older. She never could tell what he was thinking, these days. She always felt like he was mad at her for something, but whenever she asked, he just blinked and stared at her like she'd asked him the square root of two. Except today, when he'd… prompted her into trying to rip off his face instead…

She sighed, turning her attention to Takuya. Digimon or not, he was much easier to understand: he either liked you or he didn't, and everything he did was just to fill in time. He was on two sports teams, the student council, cram-studied with Kouichi every second night, played video games with Tomoki or his brother on days off, and spent every other free moment with friends or alone with her. She was pretty sure he never actually planned on having fun, though. Fun was a side point that came with keeping busy through sport or friends.

But that would all change now, she realised, shifting so she could watch him sleep. Now they were going back to the digital world, Takuya would be back in his element. He would have things to do and people to take care of. He'd be able to take time off to relax, knowing that he was needed and therefore needed to be well-rested.

She grinned, her eyes flicking over his slouched form. He had fallen asleep sitting up, his arms loosely folded over his stomach and chin nearly touching his chest. He was making an odd growling noise that could have either been a purr or a snore, but was adorable either way, and probably the reason Kouji had yet to object to the slow, leaning slide Takuya was making toward him. Soon he would be leaning into Kouji's shoulder, and Izumi could guess exactly how well that would go down.

Deciding to cut off the reaction before it could begin, Izumi gently wrapped an arm around Takuya's shoulders and pulled him upright, slanting him into her side instead. Kouji shot her a slightly irritated look and she raised her eyebrows, silently challenging him to say something. For a second, he bared his teeth back at her, before they both blinked and realised what they were doing. Kouji sighed and turned away, closing his eyes the better to ignore her.

A shrill beep cut through the room before she could complain, jerking Takuya awake so suddenly that a quick burst of flame rocketed out from his body.

"Watch it!" Kouji shouted, as both he and Izumi leapt off the couch to avoid catching fire.

"Sorry!" he cried, waving his hands. "I didn't mean to!"

"What was that?" asked Junpei, as Mokuba slid over to his desk to check the computer. "That's a really loud email alert."

"It's not email," the vice president said irritably, looking up at his brother. "We have a Trojan."

Kaiba tsked and began typing faster, but Kouichi just looked around at Tomoki. "Trojan? Like the horse?"

"Kind of," he said, shrugging. "It's a computer virus that gets into the system by pretending to be a real program. Once it's in, it starts destroying files."

"A big technology company like this and you don't have a good virus protector?" Junpei asked, and Mokuba frowned at him over the monitor.

"The more advanced your technology, the more skilled your hackers. Luckily, Big Brother is one of the best in the world, so he'll be able to –" Another beep cut Mokuba off, and he blinked, looking down at the screen again before turning to Seto. "It's gotten through to the Solid Vision Limitations."

"I am aware of that," Seto snarled, and Mokuba blinked again in surprise. The other adults began to sit up straight, watching apprehensively.

"Can't you contain it?" Honda asked, and a sliver of teeth appeared between Seto's lips.

"This… wow, this thing is fast," Mokuba said, staring at his monitor again. "It's like one of our Duel Systems."

"Mokuba," Jounouchi snapped. "For those of us without screens and any idea what's going on?"

"It – the virus, it's too fast for even Big Brother to counteract," Mokuba explained, his eyes wide. "It's just ploughing through our system, and it's eating the Solid Vision Limitations."

"Which means…?" Izumi asked, and Mokuba bit his lip.

"The limitations keep Solid Visions within a five-metre radius of Duel Disks," he said slowly. "It's the first of all the fail safes we have on our technology."

"Fail safes?" Takuya asked, and this time it was Jounouchi to answer.

"Most people think Solid Visions are just holograms, but they're actually a whirlwind of compacted dirt, dust, rocks and slow light. Kaiba designed them so the Solid Visions can only give you wind burns—and even they hurt like a bitch, I can tell you—but if that compacted whirlwind actually hit you, you could be pretty seriously hurt."

"So the fail safes make sure that any actual attack a Duel Monster makes is just light and wind," Honda added. "And they shut the system off after a certain period of time to make sure you can't scare people to death or physically hurt them with the wind burns."

"And… if you turn those fail safes off…?" asked Izumi.

"Solid Vision Duel Monsters have artificial intelligence," he said, frowning. "If they're not confined to an area around the Duel Disk, and can actually hit people…"

"And you can't stop the virus?" Kouji asked, and Mokuba looked over at his brother.

"It's running faster than our Duel System. Not even Big Brother can keep up with it."

"So shut down the system!" cried Takuya, and Seto growled.

"Don't you think that's the first thing I tried to do?" he snapped. "It's ignoring my commands."

They all stared at him, and Yami got to his feet, snatching a bag that had been resting behind the couch. "We have to find aibou," he said, and Jounouchi nodded, standing up as well.

"Hey, fox-boy," he said, and Takuya looked at him over his shoulder. "You got any special powers aside from being short and furry?"

"Uh, well… yeah…"

"Good. We're gonna need them," he said, and Takuya blinked.

"Why?"

"Maybe you weren't paying attention," Yami snapped. "There are Duel Monsters that can hurt people on the streets. Trust me when I tell you that when Duel Monsters become more than toys, they can be very dangerous."

"And they have a habit of hunting Yuugi when they're dangerous," Jounouchi said, as Yami gave him a white device that Takuya recognised as a Duel Disk. "We're gonna need some firepower."

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue...?<em>]


	5. Losing the Limitations

_**Rebooted – Chapter Four**_

Losing the Limitations

**TRUFAX: **Flamon is the rookie evolution of Agunimon, and yet, somehow, has as many attacks as he does. They're all just variations on the same theme, however. Interesting thing to note, however, is that while Agunimon is a very spiritual character, Flamon is very much a beast-man, along the fight-or-flight lines… Weird how they have back-story for all these characters, sometimes.

* * *

><p>Due to one reason or another, Yuugi had been the first of his friends with a legitimate and legal driver's license. Because of that, he'd developed a weird kind of pride that meant he would obey the road rules to a fault, just so he could keep said license and lord it over Jounouchi.<p>

And so, much as he despised slowing down anywhere near the abandoned construction site that teenage duellist gangs used for an arena, he had made sure to pause at the stop sign. From past experience, he was almost expecting a group to emerge from the shadows and try to mug him, but there was no expecting the giant humanoid lizard that suddenly leapt down on the hood of his car.

"Yagh!"

It was a Duel Monster – a bright green, six-foot tall lizard wearing armour and with an affinity for bombs, which was where it had gotten its name: The Kaiser Bomber. It grinned at him, fangs flashing in the streetlights, and its tail lashed out to smash the passenger window. Yuugi snatched his bag full of Millennium Items and scrambled out the door, only to run straight into a tall, leering man decked out in full military gear and a machine gun. Another painfully familiar Duel Monster.

"Oh, dammit," was all he could say before the Cyber Commander's arm swung out and threw him back into the car. He hit hard, the muscles in his back locking up as the metal bent beneath his weight, but the sight of a Two Headed Dragon coming around the back of the car and the Kaiser Bomber grinning at him from the hood was enough motivation for him to clamber back to his feet and run for it.

He made it across the street and into the alley, only to stumble to a halt at the sight of eight cowering teenagers in ripped and bloodied clothes. Two of them had Duel Disks strapped to their arms, so Yuugi felt justified in levelling them with a firm look. "What did you do?"

"It wasn't us, man!" one cried, brandishing his empty disk. "We were in the middle of a duel, and suddenly my dragon turned on me! I thought it was a trap card or something, but –"

"I didn't play no traps!" another yelled. "And my Cyber Commander went psycho – starting blasting holes in everything. They aren't supposed to be able to do that!"

"We took the cards out, but they're still there!" a third said, and he flailed at the alley opening. "They won't go away, and as soon as they see us, they try and kill us!"

Yuugi frowned at them all for a second, then shook his head and held out his hand. "Give me one of your disks."

"What?"

"One of your disks! Give it to me!" he said, taking his deck from his pocket. "If they won't go away, we have to fight them."

"No way! You summon a monster and it'll go crazy like ours!"

"No, it'll be different for me."

"The hell it will!"

Yuugi grimaced helplessly, before a low hiss caught his attention and he spun around. The three Duel Monsters had found them, and been joined by a tall, muscular woman in a very revealing leopard skin-bikini, and three terrifying but still beautiful bird-women. One of the Harpies had blood dripping from her talons, and another was licking her claws as if cleaning them.

"Please give me your disk," Yuugi said nervously, glancing back at the terrified boys.

"We're all gonna die," one whispered back, his eyes wide as he watched the amazon slowly unravel a whip with hundreds of tiny claws imbedded in its leather. "It's going to be bloody and painful, and we're all going to die."

"We won't die if you give me your disk!" Yuugi shouted, but that seemed to be the last straw for the boys, who turned on their heels and started sprinting for the chain link fence at the end of the alley. Yuugi moaned hopelessly, then spun back to look at the Duel Monsters. "Ah, now, um… We're all sensible beings here! You don't want to hurt me."

The Cyber Commander snickered, hoisting his gun into both hands. Yuugi offered up a nervous grin, taking another step back. "I'm serious. You really don't. The Dark Pharaoh—Game King, you know—he'd be upset if I got hurt."

The harpies paused, leaning back a little, but the others continued moving forward.

"As in murderously angry," Yuugi added, and he swallowed hard as the Kaiser Bomber pulled a large black ball from behind his back. "And he controls the Black Magician, who gets very nasty and powerful when my other self gets mad."

The amazon let out what was clearly a snort of derision, and Yuugi licked his lips, reaching over his shoulder into the backpack. "Alright then… you have no idea how much I didn't want to do this."

He slowly pulled out a long, golden sceptre and readied himself for the draining he was about to put himself through.

"Don't even think about it!" a voice shouted from over his shoulder, and he twisted around to see Yami and Jounouchi literally yanking teenagers off the chain link fence behind him. "You know as well as I do that it will do more harm than good!"

"The other me!"

"Is that blood?" Takuya's voice had come from above, and Yuugi's head snapped up to see the digimon perched on the gutter of the building beside him. "That's blood! Those bird things are all splattered with blood!"

"You're hurt?" Yami snapped, and Yuugi held his arms out in proof.

"Not yet!"

"Flame Swordsman, let's go!" Jounouchi called, already halfway up the fence with his disk glowing bright. "Cut that Commander in half!"

Despite the situation, Yuugi laughed at Takuya's shocked yell when Jounouchi's Duel Monster leapt up from behind his back. It was a large, muscle bound man in minimal red armour, but he was holding a red sword that was bigger than Takuya's whole body, so Yuugi couldn't really blame the poor digimon. The Flame Swordsman landed directly in front of the Commander, and its sword cut a diagonal line from the monster's shoulder to hip. For a second, the Commander just stared at his opponent in shock, and then began to slide apart, before exploding in a shower of fractal light. Takuya cried out again in amazed triumph, only to yelp as the harpies launched off the ground toward him, their claws glinting in the street lights.

"Flamon-san!" Yuugi cried, but then a loud crack broke across the alleyway and the amazon's whip caught him across the side. He yelled as the hooks dug into his flesh, dragging out skin and muscle in one easy movement, and then spun around from the lash, falling to the ground on his rapidly bleeding arm.

"Aibou, no! Black Magician! Slaughter that bitch!" Yami shouted, not even bothering with his disk as he threw out a shining card. The tall, armoured sorcerer never paused as he materialised, swinging his sceptre up and around in time with Yami's following order, "Black Magic!"

The amazon exploded in a flash of dark light, and the Black Magician dropped down beside the Flame Swordsman. They nodded to each other in silent agreement and separated to destroy the Two Headed Dragon and Kaiser Bomber.

Yami scaled the fence in three steps before leaping over to crouch by Yuugi's side. He waited a second to check he was still conscious, then yanked him over and up into his arms. "Aibou, talk to me, are you alright?"

"M'okay," he breathed, wincing as his torn arm brushed the accompanying gouges on his ribs. "Flamon-san –"

The rest of his words were cut off as Takuya slammed into the concrete only a metre away, dust and flame exploding around him with the impact. After a second he slowly sat up, holding his head in both hands. "Wow… those are some really strong chicks."

Yami frowned up at the three harpies that were floating down to meet them, but Jounouchi didn't hide his laugh when he noticed all three of them were nursing singed clothes and badly burnt hair. "Nice style, ladies! I just know that one'll catch on!"

They hissed at him, but didn't follow through on the threat as one suddenly swung around to catch the Flame Swordsman's blade. She screeched at him, and he growled back, but neither managed to budge the struggling sword. The Black Magician raised his sceptre and black lightning shot out to strike the other two, both exploding in a burst of dust and light.

"Show off," Jounouchi muttered, before shoving another card into his disk. "Salamander Flame!"

The Swordsman's blade burst into roaring fire, and Takuya opened both eyes again to watch the swordsman cut the bird down. He bit his lip in envious appreciation, and then turned to look at Yuugi, who was now panting as Yami tried to stop the flow of blood with his hands.

"How bad is it?" Jounouchi asked as he jumped down to join them. The two Duel Monsters hovered over Yami's shoulders, watching in awkward concern.

"The arm's in bad shape, but I think it's just a lot of blood," Yami murmured. "Where's the car?"

"Probably trashed," Yuugi said weakly. "I left it across the street. Keys are in the ignition."

"See if you can get it going," Yami told Jounouchi, who nodded and ran out of the alley, his Flame Swordsman disappearing in a much more gentle stream of light than the others. "Flame-man—"

"Flamon," Yuugi corrected, closing his eyes from the pain but still smiling.

"Flamon," Yami said dutifully. "Are you hurt?"

"Not really," he said, and pushed himself to his feet to prove it. "They were just… I'm fine."

The other two exchanged glances, and Yami shook his head. "If you can remember where it is, go back to Kaiba Corp. and ask Mokuba to give you somewhere to stay for the night. I'll get aibou fixed up and tomorrow we can find your doorway to that Digital World."

Takuya stared at him. "You want to do that _now_? Those monsters were pretty scary. Shouldn't we make sure there aren't any more?"

"There will be," Yami said, and then pulled Yuugi into a proper cradle hold and stood up, looking over his shoulder at the sound of a car starting up. "Kaiba will issue a warning to the city to keep cards away from disks, but there will always be some stupid kid that thinks he could control a real monster."

"Then we should stop them!"

"We can't," he said simply, starting toward the mouth of the alley. "There's no coincidence big enough for us to have met you and have this happen within only two hours. Whatever happened to turn you into a datamon—"

"Digimon," sighed Yuugi, and Yami grunted.

"—is probably responsible for Kaiba's virus. Duel Monsters and Digimon are too similar for my tastes – whoever caused the virus wants solid monsters—solid _digimon_—in this world. Your connection to that world, and your past as one of them, probably made it easy for you to turn into that and become an inroad," he said, and Takuya's eyes widened. He knew that, given several hours and conversations with the others, he might have come to the same conclusions, but Yami seemed to have figured it all out in the space of a few minutes. Takuya had a feeling he was probably already halfway through a solution, too.

"So what do we do?"

They had left the alley, and Jounouchi was standing by a badly beaten but expensive looking foreign car, which was running and ready to go. He opened the door, and Yami bundled Yuugi inside before turning to look at Takuya again. "We get you back to the Digital World. You and your friends find out what's going on, and you fix it. I've got no doubt that you fixing your problem will allow Kaiba to fix his."

Takuya stared at him blankly, but Yami just followed his aibou into the car and shut the door behind them. Jounouchi shrugged and gave Takuya an understanding smile. "Feels a bit sudden, doesn't it?"

"The whole day," he said breathlessly, and Jounouchi grinned.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of your day, but Yami makes things happen kinda fast. You'll get used to him eventually. Tell Kaiba he's useless for me, would ya?"

"What?" he asked, but Jounouchi just winked and swung down into the driver's seat, before kicking in the accelerator and driving away. Takuya stared after them, clenching his fists out of frustration. "Would someone stop and tell me_ what the hell is going on here_?"

* * *

><p>Superheroes made everything look so damn easy, Takuya thought to himself, as he leapt across rooftops at forty kilometres an hour. They never got confused by what was happening around them, or had trouble keeping up with things, or – or leaping across rooftops at forty kilometres a frikking hour!<p>

"Stop when I tell you to, dammit!" he yelled breathlessly as he jumped the gap over an alley. "You stupid rabbit!"

Following Yami's directions, Mokuba had set the six teenagers up in a lavish hotel, giving each of them a separate bedroom in a luxurious penthouse that had Izumi spouting Italian for several minutes. The others had gone about enjoying the room, but Takuya hadn't been able to sit still. He had seen the Duel Monsters in action, and he knew Yuugi wouldn't be the only one they would hurt.

Despite Kouichi's suggestion that he try relaxing and Kouji's comment that he should try to regain some of his slipping human logic, Takuya had decided to take a look around the city and see if there was anything he could do to help. There was no point in being able to conjure and control fire, Takuya thought, if you couldn't do anything with it.

He'd even beaten one, already. Something that had looked like (_looked like_, he kept telling himself. It was impossible for it to have been real) a zombie dripping gore had tried strangling an old man, but Takuya had tackled it away and torched it. The win had been much easier than his lost fight with the three Harpy Ladies, which told him that he actually _could_ do something. He just had to pick his battles.

The gremlin, despite its huge claws, was soft and cute-looking, and Takuya knew that if he were given the chance, he could beat it. But the damn thing was so fast that…!

He yelped as he almost missed the edge of a roof and stumbled, rolling head over tail until he stopped, sitting straight up and staring down over the gutter. The gremlin had paused to grin up at him, and Takuya felt a growl bubble up from the back of his throat.

"Damn thing's toying with me…" he realised, and the gremlin giggled. Hot air hit the back of his locked fangs, and Takuya lifted his fists, relishing the feel of naked flame enveloping his hands. "That's it, you Cherubimon wannabe! You're toast!"

He slammed one burning hand down on the edge of the roof and vaulted over, pushing off the building as fire exploded around him. The gremlin hissed at his roar and used a nearby car as a springboard to meet him in mid air, but Takuya didn't leave it time to attack. He met the bared claws with his flaming fist, ignoring the pain as one claw managed to cut into his knuckles because it was better than his face. He then twisted around, swinging a vicious kick into the monster's side and knocking it right out of the air.

The gremlin hit the street hard enough to bounce, and Takuya dropped to the ground on all fours, only pausing for a second before sprinting over to meet the gremlin as it touched ground again. But Takuya was too slow; he had only drawn back his fist when the long claws raked through the air in front of his face, forcing him to pull backward so fast he fell, and it bounded over to crouch on all fours above him.

"You bastard…!" he grunted, and the gremlin hissed at him like some kind of furious cat before slapping him across the face. The force rocked his head to the side, and he swore when he felt a cut rip open on his cheek. That one had actually hurt.

He drew his legs up under the monster's rib cage and kicked hard, throwing it up and off him, then flipping himself off his back in the same movement. They both landed on all fours and growled, hackles raised and fangs bared.

Takuya knew he looked worse than he felt, but he was out of breath, and the back of his mind kept reminding him it was animal instincts driving him more than any real desire to help people. Kouji was right – he needed to stop and regain some humanity soon or he'd lose it. Meanwhile, the gremlin was barely singed, only panting hard, but its eyes kept darting off to the side as if searching for a way out. Takuya had a strange feeling that one good hit would destroy it, but if he got close, the claws would come out and this time they might hit something important.

Hot air swirled against his fangs again, and he frowned in consideration. He felt like his fire breath was weaker than his body flame, but it was a distance weapon. If he kept it up long enough, or…

The gremlin screeched as Takuya roared out a burning stream of flame, and it curled up to protect itself from the front. He didn't bother waiting, but launched himself up, fists clenching as another roll of flame swept over his body.

"Take this!" he shouted, and slammed his fist into the gremlin's head so hard that he almost thought he felt its skull crack. He stiffened and jumped back, but the monster exploded before he could see what he'd done. Light showered down around him, and he was left alone on the street, panting as he stared at the scorch mark that was all that remained of his opponent.

It was a weird feeling, looking at it. He knew the mark was there because of him, and he could still feel breaking bone beneath his fist. It wasn't like the zombie thing, where he had just saved the day and made tracks so he wasn't seen. He had hunted this gremlin. He hadn't saved anyone – he'd just destroyed something that might not have even annoyed anyone for the rest of the night.

His ears twitched at the sound of breaking glass somewhere in the next street, and he immediately leapt up onto a light pole to begin another hunt. Duel Monsters were everywhere.

* * *

><p>Because he had been so young, and Takuya had saved his life less than an hour after they'd met, Tomoki had always held his 'big brother' in unusually high esteem. For a long time, he'd thought Takuya was invincible, and that there was nothing he couldn't do if he was given enough time.<p>

Even though he had long since grown out of that, he still thought Takuya was impressive. Even as a relatively small digimon that was more liable to set his surroundings on fire than a possible enemy, he was powerful and unbeatable.

So when Takuya climbed in the window of their penthouse suite, covered in dirt and the bloodless scratches that were the only sign of digimon wounds, Tomoki couldn't help the shocked yelp that escaped him. It was worse when Takuya stiffened up at the sound, then scrambled to climb back outside.

"Hold it!" Kouji shouted, and Takuya froze, halfway out the window. Kouji, standing with Izumi and Junpei in the kitchenette, glared at the heavily damaged back. "Get back in here."

It would have been funny if they weren't all so tired and scared, but Takuya slowly lowered himself back into the room and turned around, forcing a bright, nervous smile. "Hey, guys…! What've you been doing all night?"

"What the hell happened to you?" Junpei asked. "You look like you just went three rounds with Merecuremon without a digivice."

"Oh, now that's an exaggeration," he said, chuckling as he held up a finger. "I am clearly not dead."

"Takuya," Kouji said, his tone low and warning.

"What? I'm fine!" he cried, then cringed at Kouji's furious look. "Okay, not 'fine' –"

"You said you were just going out for a walk," Izumi said, setting her hand on her hip. "It's almost one in the morning, you come in looking like you went through a shredder, and you dare try to say you're _fine_?"

"Ah, no, as I was saying, not 'fine', but 'okay'," he corrected quickly. "I'm really exhausted, but the point is I'm not dying or anything. No data ring even showed up once!"

"What happened?" Tomoki asked quietly. He hadn't believed his friends' theory this afternoon, but the longer the night dragged on, and the more he noticed Takuya change, the more worried he became. When he'd told the others, they'd all admitted to equal concern, and they'd agreed to wait up until Takuya came back from his 'walk'. The other three had gone into the kitchen to discuss how to avoid getting violent with each other again, but Tomoki and Kouichi had settled down at the dining table with the Duel Monster cards they had brought along. The sudden reminder of real and dangerous Duel Monsters had taken all the fun out of the duel.

"Well, you know, there are like a million Duel Monsters out there!" Takuya said, and then turned a glare on Kouji. "They're attacking innocent people! You can't just expect me to stand by while that happens!"

"I thought you tried to fight some when you went out to find Yuugi-san," Kouichi said, staring at him. "Didn't you lose then, too?"

"I didn't lose!" he snapped, then went back to glaring at Kouji. "If I have to be a digimon in the real world, I should at least be able to help people."

"How many people were out on the street?" asked Junpei, frowning. "I'd've figured that in a town where everyone's scared of Duel Monsters, they'd know not to go out when they're rampaging."

Takuya stiffened up again, then looked away, folding his arms over his chest. Kouji's eyes narrowed, and he stalked out from behind the kitchenette to walk toward him. "Takuya… how many people saw you tonight?"

"Barely any!" he snapped back. "Like, two!"

"That's strange. Because if Duel Monsters were attacking people and you were saving those people, it would follow those people would see you."

"Yeah, well, I'm not that stupid. I can move under cover of darkness!" he said proudly, but Kouji just continued walking forward until they were only a foot apart. Takuya frowned at him warily, but not even he was expecting Kouji to suddenly lunge forward and grab a fistful of his hair, yanking him close until Kouji was glaring right down into Takuya's wide, startled eyes.

"They didn't see you because you weren't saving people, you were _hunting_!" he snapped, and Takuya flinched, obviously caught out.

"I… I was… I…"

"For crying out loud, Takuya!" Kouji yelled, and shoved him away hard enough that Takuya hit the wall behind him. "You got your butt handed to you earlier tonight by three bird women! What the hell were you thinking, going out and looking for trouble like that?"

"Hey, I could've beaten those girls if I'd had the chance!" Takuya cried, standing up and brushing himself off. "I just –"

"You said they were stronger than you!"

"They were!"

"Then you couldn't have beaten them, could you?" he shouted, and Takuya flinched back again, his lips drawn tight in a grimace.

"I just… I beat heaps of Duel Monsters tonight; that makes up for it."

"Makes up for what?" he demanded.

"For losing! If I had just fought a little better, or just been stronger, I could've –"

"Listen to yourself!" he cried, and Takuya's jaw clicked shut as he stared at him. They gazed at each other in silence for a moment, and Kouji took another step forward, lowering his voice to continue. "You told me tonight that you want to be worthwhile. That you want to go back to the digital world because you mattered there."

"Takuya…" Izumi murmured, but she went ignored as Kouji continued.

"I would understand you going out to help people, Takuya. That's who you are, you're so stupid that you think other people's lives are worth more than yours. But you didn't go out to help people. You went out to fight," he said, and Takuya's eyes narrowed, but he didn't stop. "This isn't you, Takuya. This is the beast-type in you. You're stronger than this, dammit, wake up!"

"Who cares?" he growled. "If I kill a few monsters, they won't be able to hurt anyone. Same difference."

"It is a complete difference!" he yelled. "It's intention. If you can justify this, then it's only a little while until you can justify fighting everyone for no reason!"

"There's a reason! I have to be stronger!"

"This isn't a game!" Kouji cried, and he took a step forward that forced Takuya back into the wall again. "This is your life!"

"I'm not in trouble, the digicode never appeared!"

"I'm not talking about digicode! And even if I was, this isn't the digital world and you aren't data! You die in this world, you aren't going to turn into a digitama, you're going to fall down and you won't get up again!" He lashed out for his hair again, but Takuya ducked under his arm and flipped away. He landed on all fours and growled, baring his fangs when Kouji turned around to keep watching him.

"Flamon," Junpei said, and Takuya glanced at him, then huffed and pushed himself up onto two legs, clenching his fists.

"You're not my keeper. I'm doing what I need to do, and I'm not asking for your permission."

"This is what I'm talking about!" Kouji shouted. "Your name is Takuya Kanbara, you are a human! You don't need to fight or flee or constantly occupy yourself or procreate or –"

"Shut your mouth!" Takuya shouted, and the others all flinched at the small bursts of flame that erupted from his body. He stalked forward, lifting one hand to poke a finger in Kouji's face. "Shut your freaking mouth, Kouji. I'm sick of you trying to tell me what's good for me when you don't know anything!"

"You're not acting like yourself," Kouji snarled. "Now take that finger out of my face before I break it off."

"You couldn't touch me if I asked you to," he shot back. "I'm a digimon now; I'm stronger than you'll ever hope to be!"

"I don't care about that. I'm worried about you," he said evenly, but Takuya's eyes widened again, a manic grin spreading over his lips.

"Yeah right! Even if you do turn into a digimon, I'm gonna be stronger than you. I've always _been_ stronger than you, and it pisses you off!" he cried, and the others stared as he suddenly cackled, stumbling backward. "That's what this is, isn't it? You like it when we're human, because that's when you're stronger than me! In the digital world, I was always better than you, so you like to think you can protect me as a big tough human! But here I am as a digimon, and I could kick your arse into the next year!"

Kouichi kept a close eye on his brother's closed expression, but the others just watched in concerned silence as Takuya's giggles got higher and wilder, and he continued stumbling backward.

"I – I could – I'm – I don't want to say this…" he whispered suddenly, and then tripped over his own tail and fell over. He blinked slowly, then looked up at Kouji, his eyes wide and a little scared. "Kouji… I'm…" He opened his mouth to continue, but his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.

"Flamon!" Junpei cried, and Izumi muffled a scream, but Kouji just sighed and walked over to kneel by his side.

"Is he okay?" Tomoki asked cautiously.

"No," Kouichi said, and then stood up to join his brother in looking over their friend.

"He's just unconscious, I think," Kouji murmured, checking pulse points and breathing. "I noticed earlier – it takes a lot of effort to fight these instinct things. Looks like they had a pretty tight control on him, so breaking out of it…"

"I can't believe how bad it is," Junpei said. "It's like he's a whole different person."

"We'll all end up like this if we don't fix it soon," Kouichi said. "How are you doing, Kouji?"

"I have a headache, but I've always had more control than Takuya," he said, and then bent down to sling one of Takuya's arms over his shoulders. "Help me get him to the couch. We should keep an eye on him."

Kouichi nodded and helped pull their friend off the ground, but continued watching his brother carefully. This was getting to him more than he was willing to admit.

* * *

><p>Yuugi blinked, staring down at Takuya and the large, purple bruises that had swelled up over night. He was eating his way through an enormous bentou from a noodle cart, but the sleep he must have gotten overnight only seemed to have made him more tired. Kouji had stuck close by his side for most of the morning, which, judging by the glare he was getting, was irritating Takuya more than he could say.<p>

"What happened to you?" Yuugi asked, but Kouji's eyes only narrowed, and Takuya scowled at his food as he replied.

"Nothing."

"Okay, then…" he said, raising his eyebrows at Yami, who just shrugged in response. Teenagers would always be unfathomable. Yuugi knelt down to reach into the bag at his feet without comment.

After a long night of drugged incoherence, Yuugi had been released from the hospital with a heavily bandaged arm and side, and orders not to perform any exercise for the next two weeks. But that hadn't stopped him and Yami from meeting the Chosen Children at Kaiba Land only an hour later, and they were now sitting in a side chamber with Jounouchi and Mokuba Kaiba. The room itself was relatively large, but crowded with a huge computer station and six large machines that looked like a cross between a really high tech sneaker and a massage recliner. Yuugi, however, hadn't made a point of noticing them yet.

"These," he announced, holding up a pair of golden scales, "are the Millennium Scales. Yami will be using them to have a look around your heart, Kouichi-kun."

Kouichi stiffened up where he sat, but Yami only gave him a casual glance as he took the scales. "This will hurt if you don't relax. I'm going to be invading your mind. If you aren't open and receptive, your natural mental blocks will rise and I'll be forced to peel them away."

He flinched, and Yuugi sighed. "Nice bedside manner, Yami."

"What?"

"'Please relax while I violently plunder your heart of all its riches'?"

"That's not what I said."

"But look at it from his point of view. It's what it sounds like."

"You know, aibou, Honda may be right about this. You were much easier to deal with when you were seventeen and scared of yourself."

"What, you don't like it?"

"Oh, I do. I just find it annoying that you use this new found confidence to constantly mock _me_."

Even Takuya let out an irritated sigh as Yami lowered the scales to concentrate on Yuugi's retort, but Junpei sat up straighter. Aside from the topic, it was very hard to concentrate on Yami invading Kouichi's mind when the two adults were bickering. And despite how casual he seemed, close inspection showed that Yuugi's lazy gaze was focussed on Jounouchi, whose absent stare was definitely pointed in Kouichi's direction. As Junpei watched, Kouichi's shoulders finally relaxed, and Jounouchi nodded, prompting the same movement from Yuugi.

Yami lifted the scales again almost casually. "Millennium Scales!"

The golden object shined bright enough to blind them all, but through his groan, Junpei had to marvel at the adults' strategy. Not that he would call himself an expert, but Junpei knew enough about the human mind to know they never could have gotten Kouichi to relax. But these three had done it without even putting much effort in. The light faded, and Junpei rapidly blinked, raising his head to look around at Kouichi as the stars faded from his sight.

He was still sitting in the exact same slumped position, staring at nothing with blind eyes. But he didn't seem at all hurt.

"Big Brother…?" Kouji asked cautiously.

"That was really bright," he said blankly. "I had my eyes open. I can't see a damn thing."

"Aside from that, how do you feel?" asked Izumi, and Kouichi turned his head toward her voice.

"I can't _see_."

"It'll pass," Yuugi said gently, taking the scales back from Yami. "We did that once to someone almost as dark as the other me. We were just trying to see if we could get them to work, but he was completely blind for hours. His partner, Ryou-kun, still asks us if we can do it to punish him sometimes."

"But it'll get better?" Takuya asked, waving his hand in front of Kouichi's eyes until Kouji slapped it away. "He's gonna see again, right?"

"Oh, of course. I would have told him to close his eyes, but then he would have known what we were up to," he said, and bowed his head. "We're very sorry, Kouichi-kun."

"But at least now I have a clear picture of the digital world's power," Yami said, and they all looked around at him in question. He frowned, rolling his head up to the ceiling. "It's odd. It almost felt… familiar."

"Familiar?" Izumi repeated. "I thought you said you'd never had anything to do with the digital world."

"That's right."

"But you just said 'familiar'."

"Yes," he said slowly, and then rolled his head around to meet Yuugi's gaze. "Not very, but familiar all the same."

Yuugi blinked, then shrugged. "Maybe it's just because you've spent so much of your dark power around Seto's Solid Visions. If the digital world really is made up of junk data from the Solid Visions, then it only makes sense it would seem familiar."

"Perhaps," he said slowly.

They hesitated a few seconds, and Kouichi had even begun to blink as some light returned to his eyes, before Takuya set down his empty bentou box with a loud clack.

"Well. No point hanging around talking. Are we ready to rock and roll on my part, or what?"

"We're ready over here," Mokuba announced, and Yuugi nodded, rifling through his bag to pull out a golden object that looked like something Junpei had seen in a history book once.

"This is the Millennium Key," he said as he and Yami stood up, motioning for Takuya to do the same. "With this, the other me can enter your soul and sense its unconscious reactions to thing things around you. Namely, the junk data Mokuba will be showing you on the computer over there."

"Do I have to be all relaxed and everything, too?" he asked, jumping over their heads to flip over to the other side of the computer station.

"Not particularly. Unlike the scales, the key doesn't have any risk of hurting anyone."

"Why?" asked Tomoki, and Yami glanced at him with a shrug.

"It's a key. Keys open locked doors."

"Point," he agreed, and then sat back to watch as Takuya crouched on the seat beside Mokuba.

"Okay, so the file I'm going to open is a viewing program," Mokuba said, glancing at Takuya to make sure he understood. "We can't actually access junk data files, but we can have a look at the programming. According to Yuugi, that should be enough for your subconscious. You just have to read the numbers that come up."

"I can do that," Takuya said, and Yami took the key from Yuugi as they stepped up behind him.

"From what you've said about your encounters in the digital world, there's a high probability you won't be conscious. But if you start reading before I use the key, your body should continue to do so afterward," he said, and Yuugi reached over to touch Takuya's shoulder.

"That also means you might suddenly find yourself somewhere different. Don't panic, okay?"

"Okay."

"Okay," Mokuba parroted, before typing something into the keyboard. The reflected light of the monitor flashed, and Takuya's large green eyes began flicking backwards and forwards as he read. Behind him, Yami lifted the key and pressed it against Takuya's head.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	6. Fractured Souls

_**1Rebooted – Chapter Five**_

Fractured Souls

**TRUFAX:** Digimon Frontier was _very_ big on Christian vs. Elemental Spirit symbolism. I wrote an essay on it, once. Most of the Legendary Warriors are based on various gods and spirits, but the one I'll bring special note of today is Agni: the Hindu god of fire. Agunimon was based on him (obviously). The reason I'm going with Agunimon, rather than Agnimon, as some fanworks refer to him, is based entirely on the way Takuya pronounces it. His voice actress was perfectly capable of pronouncing more complex syllables (Vrytramon, Serifmon, Serifirotmon, etc), but didn't. Possibly because kids would have any easier time of it, but WHATEVER. Also, it'll be a minor plot point later. Yay for fanon!

* * *

><p>"You know, you look even stranger as a human than you do a monster."<p>

Takuya blinked, suddenly realising he wasn't crouching on a seat in KaibaLand anymore. He looked around, only absently noting Yami's presence in front of him as he took in his surroundings.

He was standing in the middle of a grassy clearing, lined with trees so large and thick that aside from the way directly in front and behind him, he couldn't see any way through them. Scattered across the grass were broken bits of technology, burnt toys and books, and hanging on each tree was a picture of somebody he knew. He blinked at it all rapidly, then down at himself.

As Yami had said, he was human now. And dressed in something he'd never seen before. Covering his legs were strange trousers that were tight everywhere but the joints, disappearing into large, calf-high boots. His shirt was of the same thick material, tight across his chest and stomach but loose on the elbows, and it continued down to cover his hands like gloves. Over the top was a gigantic red jacket, and a weight at his neck made him check to see that he had gained a pair of goggles hanging like a necklace.

"This is what you normally wear, is it?"

Takuya looked up and blinked at Yami, his brow furrowing as he noticed that the man's voice had changed. It was slightly higher, and smoother, like the smirk that now seemed made for his smug expression. It was somehow much more terrifying than the anger he'd displayed through most of the last twelve hours.

"Uhh… no, I…"

"I have to say I was expecting something a bit more impressive. The same muscle tone, but taller, like your twin friends," Yami continued, and Takuya twitched as he realised that even though Yami was on the shorter side of average, he was still taller than him by a good two centimetres. "Still, some do like the short and stocky type. I like lithe myself, but what are you going to do? The hair's interesting, at least."

Takuya's hand immediately flew to touch his out of control his hair, blushing for reasons he couldn't quite understand. "Uh… I uh…"

"Let's go, then, shall we?" he asked suddenly, and Takuya flinched.

"Wait! I mean… where are we? What's going on?"

"We're in your soul room," he said, and gestured to their surroundings. "Usually a person can't exist within in their own room, but you have the rather interesting predicament of housing more than one soul. That's not supposed to happen, so when it does, it creates a gaping loophole in the rules."

"Loophole – soul – what?"

Yami scoffed, leaning his weight back and putting one hand on his jutting hip. "A soul room is the embodiment of your soul. Obviously, it's not a real place, and a person shouldn't be able to reach it – one cannot exist within one's self. But magic bends the laws of reality. Multiple souls breaks the laws into several pieces."

"Multiple souls?"

"The spirits you told us about."

"You mean Agunimon and Vrytramon… they're in here somewhere?"

He frowned, then abruptly turned and began walking.

"Hey, wait up!" he cried, running to walk alongside him. "Where are we going?"

"We have to do something while we wait for your soul to react to what you're seeing on the outside," he said. "We might as well see what's causing all this damage."

"Damage?" he repeated, and Yami rolled his eyes, gesturing to the burnt objects littering their path.

"A person's soul room is the core of their heart. The embodiment of who a person is," he said. "Several things are blatantly obvious about you from this room –"

"What do you mean?"

"I hate it when people interrupt me," he snapped, but then sighed. "The high ceiling, the trees, the grass… it all gives an impression of freedom, as if you do what you like for the reasons you need to. However, the trees are so closely grown together that there is no way for you to walk except in one direction. You, despite all claims to the contrary, are trapped within yourself and your own path."

Takuya blinked. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means you're a pathetic individual," he said, and despite the words, it didn't sound like an insult. "The pictures are people that are important to you, and from the way they hang on the trees, they're also somewhat responsible for your confines."

He frowned, looking around at the photographs. They were all beautiful pictures, bringing out the best in each of his friends and family. "But they're such nice pictures. Nice people. Wouldn't they look mean if they were trapping me?"

"Of course not. You wouldn't want to please them so much if you didn't respect them," said Yami, giving him a look. "You're not very bright, are you?"

He ignored that, trotting over to inspect a picture of Izumi. It was larger than the others, showing her full body as she smiled out at him, all wild beauty and the graceful freedom that attracted his body to her so much. "Izumi doesn't trap me at all. She's one of my best friends."

Yami stepped up behind him, eyeing the picture with narrowed eyes. "Anzu…" he murmured, and Takuya blinked.

"What?"

"The obligatory girlfriend," he said louder, and pointed to the picture. "This girl… you have a crush on her."

"No," he said, shaking his head. "We're just really good friends."

"With benefits?"

He stiffened up, then spun around to stare at him. "What? She's… well… my girlfriend. Technically. How'd you –?"

Yami let out another irritated breath. "Anzu indeed. The most important woman in my life, and, at times, the biggest thorn in my side. I love her and always will, but there have been times that nothing would have made me happier than stringing her up by her ankles from Kaiba's Duel Dome…" He hesitated, then turned another smirk on Takuya. "You'll understand some day. Shall we continue?"

He stared at him for a moment, but Yami was already walking away, so he hurried to follow. "What else does the room say?"

"Before they were burned, I'd say the technology was a symbol of your connection to the digital world. Books generally imply knowledge; they appear frequently but at random, implying that you have a habit of presenting scraps of highly intelligent insight or information at irregular intervals. That is, you are probably very intelligent, but seem idiotic."

"Hey!"

Yami just continued walking, ignoring Takuya's wounded pride with another smirk. "You are an interesting person, Flamon."

"And you?" he demanded, feeling a childish urge to retort somehow. "What's your soul room like?"

"A fair question," he said vaguely, but when he continued it was on the old topic. "But everything is burned. Charred. What was you has been damaged by fire. Flame. I'm assuming it has something to do with your 'spirits'."

Takuya watched him silently for a few seconds, then turned to face forward, watching for some kind of change in the scenery. They walked for almost a minute before he caught sight of the fire, and Yami grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

"Be aware that damage in here is just as, if not more dangerous than in the real world. Don't go rushing into the fire."

"Why would I do something that stupid?" he demanded, but Yami just raised an eyebrow and he blushed. "Well… okay…"

They continued walking forward slowly, but the closer they got, a figure became visible through the flames. Takuya hurried forward, and gasped when he recognised it. "No way…"

Yami's hand immediately lashed out to grab his shoulder again, keeping him from running into the fire, but Takuya had already stopped on his own. The figure looked up and grinned at them through the fire.

"Yo, Takuya. Long time no see."

He stared, his jaw dropping open in disbelief. The voice was different, but he would never forget the feel of the rough protective suit he could only just see, revealing every shape and contour of a body Takuya could remember as his own. The shaggy blond hair that had always bounced around like straw now danced in the heat of the fire, and Takuya found himself following it up to a face and blue eyes he had once seen from.

"Agunimon…"

"Again, I was expecting something taller," Yami said dryly, and the digimon turned to look at him.

"I'm taller than you."

"But not nearly as nasty," he replied, and Agunimon bowed his head in concession.

"Wh- how – what are you doing here?" Takuya cried, bringing Agunimon's attention back to him.

"I'm here because I will always be a part of you. You know that," he said gently, and Takuya's shoulders lowered slightly.

"Yeah, but…"

"Knowing and believing are different things," he said quietly, then raised his voice to continue. "Just as I believed that you belonged in the human world, and I believed that you needed to be a normal human child. I didn't know it, and I was wrong to believe it. I'm sorry I did that to you."

"It's not an uncommon mistake, the belief in a need for normalcy," Yami said, before he turned and began walking around the fire, inspecting either it or Agunimon.

"So… are you what's been making me act weird?" asked Takuya. "I've been going out with Izumi, and the stuff I said to Kouji last night, and… I could've gotten myself killed fighting all those Duel Monsters…! Why would you do that to me?"

"It wasn't me," he said uncomfortably. "You're acting that way because I'm trapped in these flames. I'm cut off from you and I can't… can't stop what's doing this."

"What is it?"

"I can't tell you," he said apologetically. "I want to… but I can't. The fire is more than a boundary."

Takuya stared at him for a moment, then bit his lip. "Can we get you out somehow?"

"No. Only by going to the digital world can you do that," he said, then grimaced and looked over his shoulder at Yami. "Exactly what is it you're looking for, pharaoh?"

"I'm…" Yami trailed off, walking around to stand beside Takuya and look up at the digimon face on. "I'm almost certain I never told Flamon I was a pharaoh."

Takuya flinched and stared at him, but Agunimon just smiled, as if caught out in a minor error. "Oh, really? My mistake."

"How did you know that?" he demanded, and Agunimon's eyes narrowed behind his mask.

"How _did_ I know that?" He paused, letting Yami simmer for a moment. "You should have answered some of Takuya's questions, Dark Game. Or maybe I should say 'Type B'. It does sound more insulting, doesn't it?"

"Type B?" Yami repeated, his annoyance shifting into confusion. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm not trying to tell you anything. I'm trying to repay you for frustrating my human." Agunimon's fangs glinted in the firelight with his evil grin. "I know something you don't know."

Yami opened his mouth to respond, but closed it as a quiet thump echoed around the room, quickly followed by what Takuya could only describe as a pulse. Yami swore and closed his eyes, muttering under his breath. "Pause. Take back five seconds."

Takuya blinked, staring between the two and the surrounding room as it pulsed again, and the fire surrounding Agunimon flared until Takuya had to stumble backwards. Yami grimaced and walked away, now muttering too low for Takuya to hear.

"What's going on?" he asked, and Agunimon frowned thoughtfully.

"I sense familiar data. We're close to the digital world."

Takuya raised his eyebrows. He'd thought it would take much longer to find the other world than that. "Cool. I guess this means I can go back to being human in the real world as well as my soul –"

"Takuya, while he's not listening," Agunimon interrupted, and Takuya blinked, looking up at him in surprise. "While I can't tell you much about what's happening, there are some things I can say that you need to know."

He frowned, leaning as close to the fire as he could, and Agunimon leaned down until they were on eyelevel. "An old problem is finally coming to a head, and as the one who started it, you are the only one who can fix it."

"I started it? What? How?"

"Your connection to the digital world," he whispered. "By accepting me so far into yourself, you formed a connection to the digital world. We became one creature, far more so than any of the others. You can access data just like a real digimon. Humans aren't supposed to be able to do that. You're a digital human as much as you are a living digimon. You connect the two worlds. You can save them."

Takuya set his jaw and squared his shoulders, nodding. "Okay. How?"

"I can't tell you. But you have to understand that while this gives you a purpose and makes you stronger, it also makes you more vulnerable," he said urgently. "Anything that happens to the digital world happens to you. Anything bad that might happen to the other chosen children _will_ happen to you, and it will happen to you first. You can stop it from reaching the others, but only after you face it yourself."

"What does that mean?" he asked hurriedly. "Will the others change too? Can I fix this?"

"Yes, and yes. But if you go back to the digital world soon, the others should be able to remain human. And I know you can find a way to save everything." He paused, glancing at Yami to make sure he was still preoccupied with his silent conversation, then pushed forward as far as he could so he could speak in a whisper. "This is important, Takuya. Yami is dangerous. Do not trust him, or his appearance. Find your way back to the other world, but before anything else, you must find out how it began. I'm not talking about the Legendary Ten, but the digital world itself. That's key to finding out the truth."

"If I can keep hold of my humanity long enough to keep thinking," he grumbled, and Agunimon made a move as if to touch him, but he was kept back by the fire. He sighed and clenched his fists.

"I… If you go to the digital world, you should be able to change it. But while you're there, things will be dangerous. There will be… you will… dammit," He shook his head. "I wish I could tell you everything. Go to the digital world and you'll stop losing control. But you have to be careful."

"Alright. Thank you."

"And also," He stopped, then laughed and looked up again. "Have faith, Takuya."

"What? Of course I have faith!" he said, staring at him, but Agunimon just chuckled again.

"Yes, I know. But on this… When the time comes to make you doubt yourself and your friends, just trust in your heart. Remember the past. Remember what Kouji hated most about you and keep pushing that. Because it's who you are, and it's all that matters in the end."

Takuya blinked at him rapidly. "You want me to act really stupid?"

Agunimon just laughed and shook his head, but didn't answer before Yami suddenly called out.

"Flamon, we're leaving."

"What?" he asked, still staring at Agunimon, who just grinned and waved as the world went white.

* * *

><p>"We can't trust Yami-san? Are you sure that's what he said?"<p>

Takuya nodded, glancing over Izumi's shoulder to where the adults were standing around the computer station, obviously discussing the files Takuya had reacted to. "Agunimon sounded really serious about it. He's dangerous."

"I knew I didn't like him," Kouji muttered irritably.

"But why?" asked Kouichi. "From the way they talk, it's pretty obvious Yami-san wasn't kidding when he said he'd saved the world. If that isn't a sign of good character…"

"Just because someone's capable of good things doesn't mean they're good people," Izumi said quietly. "Especially for saving the world. After all, if the world is destroyed, you would be, too. It's a selfish argument."

They paused, exchanging glances as they let that sink in. After a second Tomoki suddenly laughed, waving his hands. "Wait, hold on! We can't take this seriously, I mean… Yami-san's an international superstar! He's best friends with Seto and Mokuba Kaiba, and is dating one of America's most popular dancers! He's in a bunch of tabloids! The world would know if he was a bad guy!"

"Best friends with Seto and Mokuba Kaiba?" Kouji repeated, and they slowly looked around to where Yuugi was very pointedly stepping between Yami and Mokuba to keep them apart. They continued to exchange heated glares over Yuugi's head, and it was clear Mokuba had every intention of following through on whatever they were threatening each other with.

"And who's this dancer he's supposed to be dating?" Takuya asked. "I haven't heard them talk about any dancers."

"Anzu Mazaki," Izumi reported. Takuya froze, but she didn't seem to notice. "She's a professionally trained ballet dancer, but got picked for some football cheerleading squad, and from there she featured in a bunch of music videos. She's a real champion for feminists _and_ a sex symbol."

"That doesn't really seem like Yami-san's type, does it?" said Kouji, his eyes narrow as he watched Yami's movements. "And he'd have to have an image manager. Can we really trust tabloids?"

"Let's just think about what we know so far," Junpei said firmly. "Agunimon called him a pharaoh, right? Pharaohs haven't been around for thousands of years. And he's got heaps of dark magic, and all kinds of special powers. With all that, I'm betting he's either some kind of undead sorcerer, or something that's not human at all."

"What, like a monster?" asked Tomoki, and Junpei frowned.

"Maybe. And think about it. He keeps calling Yuugi-san 'aibou'. He always defers to what Yuugi-san says or thinks. And these guys, despite saying they don't know anything, know an awful lot about digital technology," He hesitated, looking around at Takuya. "It's only Yami-san that doesn't really want to help us. Only Yami-san that actually can. Not that I'm saying this is the case, but wouldn't it kinda fit if Yami-san was actually a human-type digimon?"

They all blinked, then spun around to look at Yami again. He noticed their attention and raised an eyebrow, and they spun back to stare at each other.

"No way," Izumi hissed, and Junpei spread his hands.

"Think about it. He really started showing up in the media _five years_ ago. Takuya said he doesn't need a Duel Disk to summon monsters. He himself has special abilities. I bet they all know it, and just aren't telling us because we'd have to take him back to the digital world with us!"

Takuya winced, glancing sideways to meet Kouji's doubtful gaze with one of his own. He hesitated, fiddling with his gauntlets, then shook his head and turned back to the others. It was best to let them decide how they felt about this.

"It does seem just a little coincidental that Yami-san can never remember how to pronounce 'digimon'," Izumi said slowly.

"He's only interested in fighting Duel Monsters if Yuugi-san's in danger. He refused to go out and round up the rogue Duel Monsters last night, even though he knew Yuugi-san was fine," Junpei continued quickly. "He only cares about helping us because Yuugi-san told him to, last night."

"So… it's like those TV shows where the people have pet monsters? Yuugi-san's like a Pokémon trainer?" Tomoki asked incredulously, and Junpei grimaced, then sighed and shrugged.

"Well… basically," he said weakly. "Yuugi-san is the one that keeps him in line."

"But that means Yami-san could be in on whatever's happening in the digital world," Kouichi said, leaning forward as he lowered his voice to a hiss. "He could even be responsible! We're relying on him to get us there!"

"If Yami does know," Kouji interrupted, his voice just loud enough to cover his friends' voices, "I think he's keeping it from Yuugi-san and the others. Yuugi-san, at least, seems genuine in wanting to help us. And Jounouchi seems too stupid to keep that kind of secret. Neither Kaiba gives a damn."

"What do you think, Flamon?" Izumi asked suddenly. "Should we trust them, or not?"

He grimaced, hunching over his knees. He seriously doubted Yami was a digimon, and didn't think Yami knew much about the digital world at all. But he had a dark feeling that maybe the digital world had something to do with Yami. But he couldn't tell his friends that, because they wouldn't really understand and probably take it the wrong way. He didn't like Yami – the Dark King scared the hell out of him, really, but he did seem like a good leader. You could rely on him to do what was necessary.

But Agunimon had told him _not_ to trust him. And Agunimon had never steered him wrong. If he was dangerous, then putting his friends' lives in Yami's hands was the last thing he wanted to do. He put a fist to his mouth, absently gnawing on the back of his gauntlet. Agunimon had also told him to put more faith in his heart. And his heart said they could trust Yami, under the right circumstances.

"We have Yuugi-san," he said slowly. "It doesn't matter what or who Yami-san is, or what he wants, because we have Yuugi-san, and I'm certainwe can trust him."

"You're certain?" Kouji repeated, raising an eyebrow, but Takuya just grinned at him over his hand.

"Idiots have good instincts, right?"

He blinked, then smiled. The old cliché had been the first back-handed compliment Kouji had given Takuya – the first time they acknowledged they could become friends. "True enough."

"As long as we have Yuugi-san keeping tabs on Yami-san, it doesn't matter what we think. What we have to worry about is getting to the digital world and figuring out why we're turning into digimon," he said firmly, and then lowered his hand to look around at them all. "If there is something wrong there, then we fix that. If it means we have to save both worlds again, we will. And I don't care who I have to team up with to do that. Whether I trust my allies or not, I'm going to do whatever I have to for the sake of the digital world."

There was a short pause as they exchanged glances, before Kouji let out a quick huff of resignation. "We don't have a choice. If we don't trust Yami, we won't get to the digital world."

"I agree," Kouichi said quietly.

"Yeah, let's just go for it!" Tomoki cried, holding up a triumphant fist. "If something goes wrong, we deal with it then."

"Think of how untrustworthy our beast spirits were when we first got them," Junpei agreed. "By the end, we would've been totally lost without them."

Izumi nodded, meeting Takuya's gaze with a warm smile. "Anything to get you back."

He grinned, then twisted around to face the adults again. "Na, Yuugi-san! How much longer before we can get this thing on the road?"

They looked up, then around at each other, silently conferring before Yuugi shrugged. "We're ready whenever you are."

"Then let's go!"

"Alright then. Let's do this."

* * *

><p>The Virtual Capsules really did look like giant sneakers, and sitting in one made you feel disturbingly like a foot sliding into a new shoe. Kouji chose one between Takuya and his brother, silently enduring the strange feeling while listening to Junpei joke about athlete's foot and watching Takuya find a way to lie back without sitting on his tail.<p>

"This," Yami announced, holding up a small blue tube as he walked over to Kouichi's capsule, "is a fifth generation Duel Disk. It's only released to casinos and the Five Gamers and is extremely valuable, so don't lose it."

"Uh, uhm," Kouichi stammered weakly as the tube was thrust into his hands. "What – what's it for?"

"We've altered it so it can function as a communication device," Mokuba explained. "Lay it out and turn it on, and you'll be able to contact whoever's in this room at any given time. We decided you would need one so that if either you or we find out any vital information, we can tell each other."

"You get it because aibou has taught me that light can be sneaky and I don't trust that one's other spirit," Yami added to Kouichi, nodding in Takuya's general direction. "The rest of you seem too twitchy. But I have faith in Darkness, so don't prove me wrong."

Kouichi blinked at him, clutching the tube to his chest, but Yami soon turned his attention to Jounouchi, who was clambering up from behind Junpei's capsule.

"All the capsules are connected in. Hardware's ready to go, Mokuba."

"Okay, the software's ready too," he announced, and Yuugi sighed, leaning back against the computer station.

"I suppose that's it, then."

"Now, you guys should all know we don't actually have a clue what we're doing, here," Jounouchi said, leaning over Junpei's capsule. "Virtual Worlds are bad karma, for us, and you aren't even going in to one of them."

"What's the difference?" asked Takuya, and they looked at Mokuba for an answer.

"Thing is, so that no one can steal Kaiba Corporation's technology, we've designed our junk data file so that once something's in there, it can't be restored or changed. If we were just sending you into a normal virtual data stream, then we could alter it to help you. We can't do that with this," he said, and then sighed, sitting back in his chair as he slowly looked around at them. "We can only even get you in and out because of Yami's power. Once you're in, though –"

"We're on our own," Kouji surmised, and they nodded.

"Worse, your bodies will technically still be here, in these chambers," Yuugi said, pointing to Takuya's capsule. "We'll do our best to protect you, but if something happens to those bodies while you're in the digital world, we can't guarantee what will happen after that."

"If we die here, we'll be stuck as data in the digital world."

"That's right. The good news is that, once we get rid of the Trojans and fix everything, we might be able to work on getting you out of the junk data," Mokuba said. "But it would take years. At best."

"And if something happens to you in the digital world, there's nothing we can do," Yuugi added. "You'll be subject to the rules of life and death of that world. Whatever that means."

"Do you still want to do this?" Yami asked, and the Chosen Children exchanged glances.

Takuya sighed, shifting until he could sit comfortably as he raised both hands. "With all that in mind, I really think it's best if you guys stay –"

"Big Brother Takuya!" Tomoki interrupted, cutting him off with an incredulous look.

"Who're you kidding?" snapped Junpei.

"That's right!" Izumi cried, glaring at him. "You're thinking of going on your own – no way are we letting that happen!"

"Besides, what happened to you could happen to all of us," Kouichi pointed out. "You can't expect us to just sit by and wait while we turn into digimon."

Takuya frowned at them, then looked around at Kouji, who just narrowed his eyes in silent accusation. He wasn't worried about what might happen to Takuya in the digital world, or if the rest of them would turn into digimon. He knew Takuya would be fine on his own, and would find some way to save his friends from becoming digimon.

What bothered Kouji about letting Takuya go alone was that he had spent the last five years watching Takuya spiral downward. He had watched his actions become more erratic, his thoughts lose their focus, his hope for the future morph into a simple plan to just keep moving. Every year, the digimon in him took a little more control, and his decisions just got worse. Kouji knew the digital world would probably turn him back into the real, intelligent Takuya, but he knew Takuya knew it too. He had seen that knowledge years ago, when Takuya climbed through his window at two in the morning. Takuya wasn't really okay in this world, and they both knew it.

Left alone, Takuya would go to the digital world, help his friends, and then find an excuse to stay there forever.

He didn't bother giving Takuya an answer; just lay back and pulled the virtual helmet down over his eyes, then stretched his arms and legs into position. He could assume the others had done the same, because the next thing he heard was the glass of his capsule sliding up and over, sealing him in.

"Come here, aibou," Yami's distorted voice said through Kouji's ear phones. "Mokuba?"

"Three, two, one…"

A female, computerised voice flickered into Kouji's ears as pixelated words flashed before his eyes. "Program start. Welcome to Kaiba Corporation's Simulated Virtual Reality Program. Please leave all sense of reality behind you, as this is no longer your world."

And then a heavy weight hit the back of his head, and the world went black.

* * *

><p><em>[Continue…?<em>]


	7. Welcome

_**Rebooted – Chapter Six**_

Welcome…

**TRUFAX**: One thing I like about Digimon, across all its seasons, is that it occasionally made the point that just because a digimon was one way in one season did not mean it would be the same in another season. Each character was separate from its species. They just had the same name. And looks. And voice… but they weren't the same.

* * *

><p>"What is it?"<p>

"I think it's a human."

"It looks like a human."

"What would a human be doing here?"

"Maybe it's a human-type."

"Oh, I think it's waking up! Ask it, ask it!"

Takuya grunted, clenching his eyes shut as he struggled to push himself upright. Dozens of tiny paws and hands helped pull him up to his knees, and he groaned, holding his throbbing head as several tugs began pulling on his clothes.

"Excuse me, are you a human or a new human-type digimon?" asked a high pitched voice, and Takuya opened one eye to look for it.

It was a little orange dinosaur, barely taller than he was kneeling down, but was peering at him like he was the most fascinating thing on the planet. Takuya peered at it for a moment, then lifted his head and opened the other eye to look around.

He was in the middle of a great stone village, surrounded by cement and small buildings that resembled boilers and furnaces more than they did houses. He blinked, then looked around at the creatures still plucking at his clothes. He didn't recognise a lot of them, but they were unmistakeably digimon. He quickly shoved himself to his feet and turned in a full circle, his smile broadening into a huge grin as he recognised the village.

"The Fire Terminal!"

The change in his own voice stopped him, and he paused to look down at himself, laughing when he saw he was human. He was wearing the strange clothes from his soul room, but he was definitely human again.

"I knew coming back here was the right thing to do!" he shouted, then spun around to grin down at the startled digimon. "Hi, I'm Takuya, a human from the real world."

They all pulled back, staring at him in shock.

"Ta- Takuya?" the orange dinosaur repeated. "The human that held the spirits of the Legendary Warrior of Flame?"

He grinned and nodded, and a collective gasp rose up from the crowd before almost all of the digimon turned toward each other and began whispering. He set his hands on his hips, waiting for them to get over it, but they didn't stop, so he sighed and knelt down to speak to the orange dinosaur.

"Na… have you seen any other humans around? Two tall guys with dark hair? A pretty girl with blonde hair? A big guy, 'bout a year older than me, or a really thin kid a few years younger?"

The dinosaur shook its head, gazing at him with deep eyes. "Are you really Takuya?"

"Yeah, I just said that. What's wrong?"

"It's just –"

"Just what?"

"You disappeared almost twenty years ago," it said quietly, still staring at him like he was made of gold. "And the Holy Court…"

He raised an eyebrow, confused. "Holy Court? What, you mean Ophanimon, Seraphimon and Cherubimon?" He paused, noticing the other digimon exchanging nervous glances. "They do still rule the digital world, right…?"

"Well…"

* * *

><p>"No one's seen them, either?"<p>

Junpei stared around at the Kokuwamon, but they just gazed back at him in response, and the elder raised his magnets in a shrug. "They evolved to their adult stage, and went on a training journey so that they would be fit to rule once they reached their next level. But that was when things began to go wrong. No one has seen or heard from them since."

He fell back on his rear and propped his elbows on his knees, frowning in consideration. The Kokuwamon were relatively small metal digimon, with strange, magnetic prongs that spouted electricity from various points all over their body. Since he was the Warrior of Thunder—and therefore electricity, in a way—Junpei wasn't all that surprised he'd woken up in their village, though he probably would have preferred not waking up to a nasty electric shock. Another thing he wasn't so happy about waking up to was realising his clothes had changed too. A purple and yellow jacket covered an orange shirt and blue jeans, and he was almost certain he was wearing an orange pair of Takuya's gloves. Even so, he probably wouldn't have minded so much except that his friends were nowhere in sight, and everything the Kokuwamon were telling him sounded all wrong.

He had no idea where he was supposed to go, what he was wearing, whether his friends had gotten through as well, or what was going on.

This wasn't the real world. There weren't any easy paths to follow, and he wasn't Kouji or Takuya. He couldn't make his own choices in a world like this. Put him in school, with friends, clubs or classrooms, then sure, he could lead away, but here… For all he knew, he could be alone in a world that wasn't really the digital world, fighting to save something that didn't really exist. How was he supposed to make decisions in this situation?

He groaned, burying his face in his hand. He needed Takuya, pointing the way with a reassuring smile. He needed Kouji, taking the first step on a long journey with no clear end. He needed a digivice. He needed Ophanimon's distorted voice telling him which direction to take. He needed…

Junpei blinked, opening his eyes again at the thought, and then looked up and around. Last time they'd been in the digital world, the only Kokuwamon village they'd seen was actually a slave camp. This didn't look anything like that, but the building below looked almost identical to the Wind Factory they'd found the slaves in. He frowned and slowly stood up, just staring at the old building.

"This is where I found my Human Spirit…"

* * *

><p>Izumi tugged at her skirt for what felt like the fiftieth time, but failed to make it stretch any lower than her extreme upper thigh. Granted, half her original time in the digital world had been spent running around in what was essentially underwear and bondage bracers, but at least then she had been a digimon and could beat up anyone to look at her funny. Right now, the skimpy, skin-tight purple… belt was a better description, and halter top, accompanied once again by numerous straps, elbow-length gloves and thigh-high boots, made her feel more like a stripper than a legendary warrior.<p>

She sighed and gave up, deciding that she would just have to find Kouji, Kouichi or Takuya. Kouichi and Kouji had been wearing jackets that she could borrow, Takuya had seen much more of her often enough to just take it in stride, and, at the very least, any of those three could be counted upon to play the chivalrous knight.

She just hoped she didn't find Junpei or Tomoki before that. At thirteen, Tomoki was beginning to grow into his hormones, and Junpei had always been unable to control himself around her. The nosebleeds alone would be impossible to deal with.

She flipped her hair over her shoulder and stood up, glancing around in consideration. She had woken up to find herself on a high stone pathway, and she was almost certain it was somewhere in the Dark Area, around where they had fought Serifirotmon – one of the corrupted legendary warriors. But beyond that she was lost – she was right in the middle of the huge cavern, and had no idea which way was up or down.

"Mm… where are you when I need you, Takuya?" she muttered, and patted herself down in search of a pocket that might hold a digivice. After tugging at her skirt again, she tried pulling up her boots instead, only to pause as something shifted against the inside of her knee. She frowned, then reached into the boot, feeling around until she touched body-warmed plastic.

It wasn't a digivice, but it was her mobile phone. She grinned and held it up, her smile only fading a little when she saw the lack of reception. "Well, what do you expect a digital phone to do in a digital world?" she asked herself, and put the phone back in her boot. "But it's something! Maybe it'll transform the longer I'm here!"

Taking the discovery as a triumph, no matter how small, she snapped herself to attention, closed her eyes and spun around. When she opened them again, she was facing a downward stairway in one of the two walls attached to her pathway.

"It's a road," she decided, and started forward.

* * *

><p>Staring around the crowded market, Tomoki scratched the back of his neck, unsure as to which way he should go. He recognised where he was, alright—the giant stove was more than enough of a clue to tell him he was in Akiba Market, a town dedicated to selling everything and anything in the frozen North of the digital world—but how he got there and what he should do now was another matter entirely.<p>

It had been weird enough waking up in a deserted alley in warm but unfamiliar clothing, and then realising his friends weren't with him, and then finding out from scraps of information he had heard in passing that it had been a whole two decades since they'd left, but it had just occurred to him that his friends were probably in the same predicament. Which meant he had to find them. And that was easier said than done – the digital world was huge.

He took off his hat and turned it over in his hands, thinking. It was a green snow cap, almost like the one he'd worn as Chakmon, and matched the vest and giant boots he'd woken up with as well. It was oddly comforting to have a hat again, let alone one that reminded him so much of his spirit, but he would have much preferred to have Takuya.

If he just had some idea of where the others _were_…

He sighed and crouched down where he stood, frowning at the shifting crowd. This market was where he'd gotten his beast spirit, but aside from getting their butts kicked slightly less than what they were used to by Lucemon's henchmen, nothing particularly special had ever happened in the Northern Area to the group at large. There was no good reason for them to have materialised in the digital world here.

Following that logic, it was possible that Tomoki was the only one there. It was special to him because not only was it a frozen area, which appealed to him as the Warrior of Ice, but he'd found his beast spirit here, and learned that he could fight just as well as Junpei or Izumi. This was where he'd realised he actually mattered. This was the place he felt the most connected to.

So, then, it was possible that maybe the others were in the places they had the greatest connection with! He grinned to himself, thumping a fist into his open palm. He just had to figure out where each of those places would be, and go there to find his friends!

With Takuya, it was obvious – only a few minutes after they'd first arrived, they'd been told the Fire Terminal was the home of the Legendary Warrior of Flame. Once he'd found Takuya, they could go together to the Dark Area—Kouichi was probably there—and then to wherever Kouji would probably be, like maybe the Citadel of Light. Izumi and Junpei would be a little harder to track down, but Tomoki was sure Takuya, Kouji and Kouichi would know.

He stood back up again with a laugh and started picking his way through the crowd. He was going to need a Trailmon pass.

* * *

><p>"Kouji, please, open your eyes!"<p>

He gasped, his eyes snapping open as his entire body jerked, shoving him up onto his elbows. Kouji blinked at the nothing in front of him for a second, then turned to see Kouichi sigh in relief and sit back on his heels.

"I was beginning to think you'd never wake up."

He continued blinking at him for a moment, then sighed and flopped back against the ground. The last thing he could remember was pain at the base of his skull, so he had automatically woken up on the defensive. Kouichi's open concern had put him completely off balance.

"Are you alright? We're in the Dark Area of the digital world – it doesn't make you weak or anything, does it?"

"No," he said wearily, then pulled his legs up to his chest and rocked himself to sitting so he could look around. Sure enough, they were in the middle of the great rocky space that marked the edge of the Dark Area. He had a feeling it was even where he and Kouichi had spoken for the first time. "How long was I out?"

"I'm not sure. My watch is gone," he said, and Kouji blinked, his eyes widening as he looked back at Kouichi. Now that he was looking…

His brother's habitual white cargoes and over shirt were gone, instead replaced with an outfit more suited to some of his more depressing friends. Everything from his jeans to his trench coat were deepest black, with only a golden, skin-tight shirt to add any colour. Even his hands were covered by fingerless black gloves, and he was also wearing a pair of heavy, buckled black boots that looked like they weighed more than he did.

The strange outfit prompted Kouji to check what he was wearing as well, and he twitched, his arms lifting as if he could flinch away from himself. In complete contrast, he found himself in what could have passed for a white marching band uniform, complete with shoulder epaulettes and buttoned decorations.

"What the hell is this?"

"What are you complaining about?" Kouichi asked, staring at him. "You just look like your spirits gone trendy."

"Wolfmon did not wear anything this ridiculous!" he snapped, then sighed and closed his eyes, shaking his head. "What am I saying, they're just clothes…"

"Still kind of embarrassing, though," Kouichi said through a nervous laugh. "I'm almost glad the others aren't here to see me."

"The others?" repeated Kouji, and he opened his eyes to look around again. "They're not here?"

"No. I had a look around a while ago, when I first woke up. There's no one around at all, except a few digimon I can't put a name to," he added apologetically. "I got nervous when I recognised it. It's close by to where Cherubimon's castle used to be, you know."

"Yeah, I saw," he said, then sighed and turned back to him. "But, you were saying there's no one around?"

"Yeah. I came back to wake you up, but I'd been walking around for a few hours. Izumi and the others definitely aren't here." He paused, then pointed to a light in the distance. "I know where we are, though. Over there is the Trailmon Graveyard, and if we walk for about a day beyond that, we'll get to the Dark Terminal. It's not a nice place, but there should be a Trailmon we can catch out of here."

Kouji gazed into the darkness for a moment, then frowned and looked around for his backpack. Luckily, unlike his clothes, the bag had made it into the digital world, and he grabbed it up to check its contents. Everything was still there, including his mobile phone, but there was no reception.

"There's gotta be some way we can find Takuya and the others," he murmured, his eyes narrow in thought. "I don't want to just walk off unless I have a heading."

"Good point. They might be walking in the other direction," Kouichi agreed, and he sat back on his palms for a moment, before he suddenly gasped and jerked forward again. "I've got it!"

Kouji looked up at him, and Kouichi grinned, pulling the thin blue tube Yami had given him from one of his trench coat's numerous pockets. "Kaiba-san told us they couldn't alter the data, but that doesn't mean they can't read it! Maybe they can tell us where the others are!"

"You think?"

"Why not?"

Kouji frowned, but didn't comment as Kouichi fiddled with the tube, eventually finding some kind of catch and spreading it open across the ground between them.

"Alright. So supposedly we just turn this on, and we'll be able to communicate with them, somehow," he said, and they both stared down at the blue mat. After a moment, Kouji looked up at his brother with a raised eyebrow.

"So? Turn it on."

"I…" He paused, and Kouji sighed again.

"You don't know how, huh?"

"No…"

"Great…" He grimaced, shifting so he could look down at the mat better. But no matter how he looked at it, it was still just a blue rectangle. "Is there some kind of button or switch?"

"Not that I can see," he said slowly, then groaned and hung his head. "This is why I've never won a single game of Duel Monsters. I don't get the technology."

"Well, it just looks like a piece of blue rubber, to me," Kouji said bluntly. "Maybe you talk to it, or something?"

"Maybe… On?" Kouichi tried, but the mat didn't respond. He bit his lip, then tried again in English. "Activate? Communicate? Duel? Work, somehow?"

"Nothing," Kouji said, and they both let out identical heavy breaths of resignation. "Well, if that's the case—"

"—I'll just have to take it from you!"

Instinct made them both jump backward at the sudden voice, Kouji grabbing his bag as he flipped away, but Kouichi could only stumble back with a shout. A second too late, he realised the mistake, and cried out as a large dog-type digimon leapt down over the Duel Disk.

"Ah, no, don't –!"

"I'll take this," the digimon announced, and it grabbed the mat with its teeth, grinning at them quickly before leaping up and away.

"Hey! Give that back!" Kouichi shouted, clenching his fists as he watched it soar over his head.

"Forget it, we couldn't use it anyway," Kouji sighed, but Kouichi shook his head.

"No! It's fine now, but what about when we want to leave? We need that Duel Disk to get Yuugi-san and the others to bring us home!" he said, and Kouji flinched in realisation.

"Damn, I forgot! After him!" he shouted, and they both took off at a sprint.

"Hah! You think you puny humans can catch me?" the dog laughed, leaping atop a large boulder to leer at them. "I am the great Cereberomon! Even if you did, by some miracle, catch up to me, you could never hope to defeat me!"

"Cereberomon?" Kouji muttered, his eyes narrowing as the name stirred a vague memory. It took him a few steps before he remembered, and then scoffed. "The Watchdog of the Dark Area! Takuya defeated you before he even knew what a digimon was!"

"What?" gasped Kouichi, barely able to speak while running so fast, but Kouji smirked.

"This thing was the first enemy any of us defeated. Takuya had no idea what a digimon was or how he could control flame, and he still killed this thing easily," He turned back to sneer at Cereberomon. "Even as humans, we can beat this small fry."

"What did you say?" the dog snarled, and Kouji grinned, veering off to the side to one of the bare, stick-like trees that dotted the rocky landscape. He continued sprinting, even as he lifted his hands to catch one of the stiff branches, and used his weighted momentum to tear the limb free. It wasn't exactly a sword, but it was a hell of a lot better than some of the bokkens he'd used in his time.

"Kouichi, stay down!" he ordered, gripping the branch with both hands as he started running toward the digimon. Kouichi cringed but leapt out of the way behind a rock, leaving Kouji to fight alone. He hated being so useless, but he'd gotten involved in a street fight before, and proved himself as nothing but a handicap. He could only imagine how much worse it would be when it was between a fully-powered digimon and his brother armed with a stick.

"Why you…" Cereberomon spat out the Duel Disk and leapt off his boulder to start his attack. "I'll show you some respect! _Hell Fire_!"

Kouji grunted as he slid out of the way of the burning green flames, but never stopped moving. He would need all the speed and power he could get if he was going to have a chance of beating such a large digimon. "What are you trying to pull? Get serious, here!" he shouted, and then leapt forward, using another dead tree as a swing to avoid a second blast of fire.

"Don't mock him, Kouji! You'll just make him madder!" Kouichi shouted, slamming his fist into his rock. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

Kouji ignored that as Cereberomon suddenly lunged forward, all teeth and claws, and only just managed to avoid it before swinging his branch around for the first blow. It smashed against the back of the digimon's head, knocking it forward so hard that the dog went sliding into a tree, and Kouji scrambled to find another weapon before it could recover.

"Ah, the Duel Disk!" Kouichi cried, and he pushed himself out from behind his rock to make a run for the abandoned mat.

"No! It's mine!" Cereberomon shouted, and Kouji only just managed to look up from the old fence post he'd picked up in time to see the digimon clamber up to face Kouichi.

"Don't touch it, human! _Hell Fire_!"

"Big Brother! _Move_!" he screamed, and threw the fence post in a futile attempt to intercept the flames. It missed by a long shot, but his shout had startled Kouichi into tripping, and the fire flew harmlessly over his head. Kouji sank to his knees in relief, thanking the gods for Kouichi's eternal clumsiness.

"So easily distracted!" Cereberomon shouted, and Kouji only had time to spin around before the black claws slammed into the side of his head, throwing him several metres. He hit and bounced hard, but rolled back to his feet, only stumbling once before sprinting for his lost fence post.

The wood was rough, with lots of splinters, but he just squeezed it all the tighter for the pain, willing it to distract him from the wave of dizziness the hit had caused. He'd forgotten how powerful digimon could be; it was making his vision swim.

"That thing is important to us," he said darkly, glaring at the wavering image of Cereberomon. "I'm not going to let you have it."

"Hah, what do humans need with such things? What would you have come here for if you wanted such precious objects?" it demanded, stalking forward with teeth bared. "That thing is from the real world, I can tell! With it, I can build a bridge across, and I can enter that glorious paradise!"

"I don't know what you've been drinking, but the real world isn't any glorious paradise," he said, and then raised the post over his head. "But whatever you want with it, you won't have your way! That thing's our way home, and I'll be damned if I'll hand it over to the likes of you! Prepare yourself!"

"You should do the same, human!" Cereberomon shouted, flames bursting from its mouth as it leapt forward. "_Die_!"

Kouji darted off, running up an inclined rock to avoid the rocket of fire and build up his momentum again as he drew the post back for attack. "Not until you do! _Licht Ziegel_!"

He didn't know why he'd shouted an attack he couldn't possibly use, but it came out before he could stop it. What was more amazing was that as he brought the post down, it shone with an almost blinding light, and didn't splinter when it slammed against Cereberomon's back. Through the light, he heard the digimon grunt in pain and saw it buckle, and so jumped back and away to watch the digicode circle appear around it, the digimon itself destroyed.

He just stared at it for a second, panting, then jerked back as the data suddenly streamed out toward him. He almost fell back, but the data just sailed past his shoulder and into the bag on his back.

"What the…?"

He pulled off his bag just as the data finished transferring, and absently watched the digitama shoot off into the distance as he opened the backpack. A quick search brought out what had once been his mobile phone, but had somehow transformed into –

"My digivice!" he shouted, and Kouichi looked up from where he was picking up the Duel Disk.

"Really? You got it back?"

"Look," he said, holding it out for an instant before pulling it back and beginning to search its functions to see what he could use it for. The symbol of Light blazed back at him from the screen, but no matter which buttons he pressed, he couldn't find the spirits. He sighed, but then grinned as he contented himself with even that much.

"Kouji," said Kouichi, rolling up the Duel Disk as he walked over. "I don't know if you noticed, but you shouted 'licht ziegel' in that fight. Wasn't that one of Wolfmon's attacks?"

"Yeah, I don't know why I did, though," he said slowly, and looked up to meet his brother's gaze. "But right after I did, the post I was using flared just like my light sabres used to."

"You used a digimon's attack as a human," Kouichi breathed, and they stared at each other silently for a moment before looking down at Kouji's digivice.

"Well, we can't assume anyone else has gone through the same thing," Kouji said firmly, and he slipped it into one of the pockets of his strange new clothes. "But I think it's safe to say we might get attacked like that again."

"Mm. We should start walking and make ourselves less of a target. Maybe head for somewhere we know the others would probably go."

Kouji frowned, putting a hand to his chin in consideration. "I don't know where everyone would go, but I think I can guess where at least Takuya came out," he said, and stepped past his brother to start walking. "The Fire Terminal. It's a long way off, but I've got no doubt that he would at least head that way, if not have appeared there to start with. Not to mention that we might run into the others on the way there."

"That makes sense," he said weakly, hurrying after him. "But the Fire Terminal's on the other side of the digital world! It'll take us a week to get there, even by Trailmon!"

"I don't have any other ideas, do you?"

"No, and I'm not complaining," he said quickly, then sighed and lowered his eyes. "I'm just saying that we're gonna be here for a while."

Kouji pursed his lips but didn't comment, just bowed his head and stepped up the pace. It was a lousy option, but their only one.

* * *

><p>Izumi had never noticed how boring walking was, before.<p>

She took a deep breath and sighed it out, folding her arms around herself for comfort. She had been walking for hours now, and although she'd finally gotten out of that ant hill of a cavern, she was a long way from anywhere, and getting extremely bored.

"Walking was so much easier when the others were with me," she muttered, kicking the dirt. "Ahh… when did I get so co-dependent?"

"So co-dependent!"

She paused at the echo, then looked up and laughed. There was a small creature hanging from a tree a few metres away. A cross between a blue fox and an adorable bat, it was a pipismon – a dark-type digimon that could mimic any sound it heard, and usually would, just to hear itself talk.

"Hey, there! I'm so glad to see you," she said, and the digimon tilted its head.

"I'm so glad to see you," it parroted, and she giggled.

"Honestly, every digimon I've seen so far has just turned and run at the sight of me! Am I scary, or something?" she asked, and raised her eyebrows when the Pipismon's smile disappeared. "Ne, you can talk, right? You don't only repeat things."

It blinked and tilted its head the other way.

"Tell me, would you? Do Trailmon come through the Dark Area, these days? Bokomon said he would write down the truth of the Dark Area and pass it on to everyone," she said. "So Trailmon come through here now, right?"

"Trailmon come through here now," it repeated, and she grinned as she realised that was an answer.

"Then, can you show me where a rail is? I need to get out of here and find my friends."

It hesitated, then swung around so it was upright on the branch, its back to her. She frowned and hurried around to see its face.

"Hey, please! I don't want to be a bother, I'm just lost and need help!"

"Just lost and need help," it repeated, then cocked its head again. "Lost in the Digital World again."

She gasped, clapping her hands. "You do speak on your own! That's so great!"

"Human children are lost in the digital world again," it said. "Find the gateway."

"What?"

"I'll need help to catch it. Just find it first. Lost in the Digital World."

She blinked rapidly, then clenched her fists and took a step forward. "Hey! Are you just playing around with me?"

"Just playing around with me?" it said brightly, and she cried out in frustration, stamping her foot.

"You little jerk! I just want to find the Trailmon tracks!"

"Were those Pipismon?" it asked, and then launched off the branch, flapping hard as it soared over her head. "Find the Trailmon tracks!"

"Come back here, you!" she shouted, spinning around to glare at it. "I'll teach you to mess around with me!"

"Mess around with me!"

"Arghhh!"

The Pipismon cheerfully echoed her aggravation, gliding over the rocks with only the slight effort of its flapping wings. Irritated now, Izumi raced after it, dodging boulders with the grace she'd developed through four and a half years of school dance. For years now, gymnastics and hip-hop dancing had been the closest she could get to the way she had felt as her human spirit Fairymon, and she still felt like she needed it. The strength was gone, but at least she could flip onto her hands and spin in place, which could have been a Tornado Gamba in another life.

She frowned at the random thought, and slowed to a walk, then stopped. "That's right," she murmured, curling her fist into her chest. "I'm back in the digital world, but I can't turn into Fairymon without a digivice."

"Digivice!" the Pipismon repeated, and she glared up from under her eyebrows to see it hovering above her with a silly grin.

"Leave me alone, would you? I don't want to talk to someone that's just going to make fun of me."

"They'll recreate the digivices," the Pipismon said, and she blinked, some of her irritation leaving in confusion.

"Recreate…?" she whispered, then quickly turned to look up at it. "Ne, Pipismon –"

"Pipismon! Quick, delete them!" it cried. "They repeat anything they hear!"

She stared at it blankly for a moment, then took a halting step forward. It flapped away by several metres, but she had already noticed everything she needed to. Digimon didn't bleed, but there was definitely a tear in its chest fur, and the dirty trails of tears down its face. "Pipismon…"

"Pipismon, Pipismon! I think I got them all!"

"Oh, no," she breathed. "You poor thing…"

It just flapped in midair, staring down at her, and she sighed.

"I guess you can't tell me who said all that? Did anyone else make it out?"

It didn't answer, but then, she didn't really expect it to.

"Well, maybe you should come with me, then. It's better together than alone, right?" she asked, and offered a sympathetic grin. "I know you like the dark, but maybe you should try a different area. I'll take you to the Breeze terminal, or somewhere… if I can just get to a Trailmon…"

"Get to a Trailmon! Find the Trailmon Tracks!" it cried, and then shot off flying again. She yelped and started running after, but couldn't help looking in all directions as she did. There was no telling who had killed the Pipismon's friends, but she had a nasty feeling they were still close by. If what the Pipismon was saying was true, then it was probably only a matter of time before she got to meet them.

* * *

><p><em>[Continue…?]<em>


	8. Said the Spider to the Fly

_**Rebooted – Chapter Seven**_

Said the Spider to the Fly

**TRUFAX:** I forgot to correct my mistake when editing the last chapter. The Dark Terminal is a non-tangible place, only accessible by those who have reached a certain level of darkness in their heart and mind. The _Trailmon Graveyard_ is the tangible place. Um. Sorry to screw up.

* * *

><p>It was very hard to look imposing while glaring down a gigantic red train with teeth, but be damned if Kouji wasn't managing it. Kouichi raised his fist to his mouth to hide his grin, looking between his brother and the Worm Trailmon to judge who would win.<p>

Out of all the strange places and creatures in the digital world, Kouichi still thought the trailmon were probably the most distinctive. They looked and functioned exactly like a real world train, except that they had faces and personalities – very aggressive personalities, in the case of Worm. But then, so did Kouji.

Worm was certainly bigger and stronger, but it was confined to its tracks, and Kouji was making a point of standing with one foot on either side of the rail. He wouldn't budge too soon.

"Let us on," Kouji said again.

"Not without a pass," Worm replied. "Move, I have stops to make."

"And we have places to go," he said evenly.

"You're putting me behind schedule."

"I'll get out of the way for a free ride."

"I could run you over."

"You wouldn't dare."

"You're just a human! No one would care."

"I'd care."

"You'd be dead."

"Um," Kouichi interrupted, biting back his grin when they both switched their glares to him. "Sorry, but I just thought I should point out that this human just destroyed Cereberomon with nothing more than a stick."

"Hmph! A stick won't get in the way of my wheels!" Worm said, and Kouichi nodded.

"True, true… maybe, then, I should point out that he's a Legendary Warrior?"

That stopped it, and it reared up on its tracks to stare at him. Kouichi blinked in his best innocent-Izumi impression.

"The Child of Light, actually, which makes him really important. The strongest warrior, you know…"

Kouji blushed despite himself. "Big Brother Kouichi…"

"Impossible!" Worm cried, thumping back down on his tracks hard enough to make them jump. "I saw the Child of Light with my own eyes, all those years ago! He was a little boy with a bandana!"

"And now I'm a high schooler with a bad outfit, what's your point?" he snapped.

"I don't believe you. The Legendary Warriors were human children, and you are not."

Kouji scowled, then grabbed his digivice from his pocket to shove it in the trailmon's face. "A digivice. What do you think of that? Proof enough?"

Worm continued glaring at him for a second, then looked away. "No."

"Well, I suppose he could evolve into Beowolfmon and make you," Kouichi said thoughtfully, and raised his eyebrows when Worm flinched. "You don't think so?"

For a moment, no one moved, before Worm opened its mouth and huffed out a childish breath of steam. "Fine. But I'm only travelling a day out of the Dark Area. You want to go further than Akiba Market and you have to find someone else!"

"That's fine," said Kouji, looking at his brother with a smirk.

"Thanks, Worm!" said Kouichi, already running for the carriages. He hauled himself up by the doorhandle and opened it, then leaned back to help Kouji up before following him inside. They had barely closed the door behind themselves when they were knocked off their feet by Worm shooting off down the tracks.

"That was lucky," Kouichi sighed, rubbing his head. "I was really shocked when you managed to get him to stop; I never thought we'd actually get a ride."

"Spending time with Takuya teaches you that sometimes you've just got to face things head on," he said, and pushed himself up to instead sit on one of the benches. "But it all came down to you threatening him with the legendary warrior. I hadn't thought of that."

"I don't know what we would have done if he'd asked to see you evolve. Do you think you even can?"

"Who knows?" he said, and lifted his digivice to stare at the symbol of Light. "I don't even know how I used his power before."

Kouichi gazed at him silently for a moment, then turned and looked up at the window. "I wonder if everyone's okay. Or if they even made it here." He hesitated, glancing at Kouji sideways. "If Takuya didn't…"

"He's here, somewhere," he said firmly, not even raising his eyes from his digivice.

"How do you know?"

"Who knows?" he said again, and smiled. "Real idiots just make their presence known."

He laughed, but then bit his lip and lifted himself up onto one of the seats opposite Kouji. He hesitated, glancing out the window, then coughed and turned back. "Hey, um," he said, but balked when Kouji looked around again. "It – nothing."

He gazed back at him silently for a moment, then shrugged and returned to the window. Kouichi shifted in his seat, watching Kouji from beneath furrowed brows. As honest and direct as his brother could be on occasion, sometimes there was just no way to tell what he was thinking, or how he would react to the things suggested to him. For months now, Kouichi had been on the verge of asking him several questions, but they all related to Kouji's feelings, and that, he had long since figured out, was dangerous territory.

But they really had to be asked, and soon. Not just because they were getting older, and so their relationships were getting firmer, but because they were in the digital world. Even if this world didn't have a habit of bringing secrets to light, once they found their friends again, they would all be stuck together. There would be no avoiding their feelings, because there would be no avoiding each other.

He frowned and lowered his eyes to his hands, absently noting that he had been unconsciously removing one of his fingerless gloves.

Kouji clearly _liked_ their friends. Unlike pretty much every other person that chose to spend time with him at school, Kouji actually sought out the company of and voluntarily talked to the other Chosen Children. He went to Junpei for help, taught Tomoki some basic kempo, let Izumi drag him out shopping and went to all Takuya's sports matches. He even admitted to enjoying hanging out with them. Kouichi knew all that; he'd seen it.

But sometimes he couldn't help but doubt it a little.

It was just little things. Like how he was always insulting Takuya. It was no big deal – lots of Kouichi's guy friends made fun of each other. But Kouji did it all the time, even when he didn't think anyone was listening. Worse, although there was often a fond look along with the most venomous of insults, the insults got darker when Kouji thought he was alone, and the expressions that went with them did too.

Things were even weirder with Izumi. While Kouji never outright insulted her, Kouichi had caught them exchanging glares or petty arguments. Unlike the issue with Takuya, the problem was clearly mutual, which actually made it worse. With this world, and no way to avoid each other, they were definitely going to get into a full-scale argument pretty soon. If it was just because of this whole losing-control thing, then it would resolve itself soon enough, but if not…

Normally, he wouldn't have thought too much of it. He was pretty sure he knew what it was about. As corny as it sounded to Kouichi, Kouji believed in love above all else, and in following your heart. It had become increasingly obvious that Takuya and Izumi weren't together because they were madly in love. In fact, Kouichi only even knew about their 'relationship' because Kouji had spent hours complaining about how sick and wrong it was.

But now that they were in the digital world, it was quite possible that all their futures would depend on the six of them working together; particularly Kouji and Takuya. It wouldn't go too well if they were busy arguing.

Kouichi pursed his lips, then shoved his glove back on and looked up. He had to get this sorted out, for all their sakes. "Hey, um, Kouji?"

"Mm?" he asked, rolling his eyes around to look at him but otherwise not moving.

"I was just thinking… you know, once we find the others, we won't get any space. It'll be just like old times – every minute of every day, all together," he said, then closed his eyes in a weak smile. "Only this time, we won't have the world in dire peril to distract us!"

"That's true, isn't it?" he said, and turned to face him properly. "Why bring it up?"

"Well, you know, I was just thinking that things have been kind of strained lately," he said, and looked off to the side to avoid his brother's gaze. "Between you and the others. Izumi."

Kouji didn't say anything, but his back straightened, and his arm slid off the back of his seat to fold over his stomach. He continued meeting Kouichi's gaze, defying him to keep talking, but Kouichi knew how to be just as stubborn as his brother.

"And you and Takuya, too."

The muscles around Kouji's eyes tightened, but he still didn't make any other response.

"I mean, I understand it a little – you three have been getting the worst of this lack of control, it seems, and Takuya's been worrying me for years now, running around like he'd go crazy if he stopped," he said, and glanced off to the side, his fingers beginning to fidget with his gloves again. "But since it is just the three of you, really, and… last night was kind of extreme. I really thought you might hit him after that crack about him being stronger than you."

"I wouldn't have hit Takuya," he said, forcing a wry smile. "I can't hit him."

He hesitated, thinking back on it, then raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. Now he thought about it, although Kouji and Takuya had thrown each other around, grabbing collars and shaking each other with extreme force, neither had ever thrown a punch that connected. It would always miss by a fairly sizeable gap, or they would change their minds and suddenly not care.

"I guess not Takuya," he agreed. But still… "What about Flamon?"

"That's different," he said. "What happened last night wasn't Takuya, but he was still my friend. I'm not going to hurt him just because he's sick and that's making him act differently."

"But you just said it wasn't Takuya."

"Not in the head, but still in the body and heart," he said, and his eyes narrowed again. "Takuya will always be Takuya, no matter what form he's in. He's just as stupid and selfish and reckless as ever. I still have to watch his back."

Kouichi stared at him blankly, and Kouji frowned. "What does it matter, anyway?"

"I don't know… I'm just trying to work out where the digimon issues end and it becomes human emotions," he said, then bit his lip, well aware that his next suggestion would push Kouji's patience. "Kouji, are you, maybe… jealous?"

"What?" he cried, and Kouichi's eyebrows rose along with his brother's pitch. "Of course not! Who would I be jealous of?"

"Well," Kouichi began, but he had clearly hit the right spot because Kouji kept going.

"I am not jealous!" he snapped. "Takuya and Izumi are sleeping together because their bodies and hormones are telling them to procreate, I know that. Even if I was jealous, I wouldn't have reason to be because it's not about emotions. And if it was, then I would just be mad at Izumi, because it's completely selfish of her to be involved with Takuya when she knows Junpei's been in love with her since we were eleven."

Kouichi blinked, and Kouji apparently took it as an argument, because he shook his head in rebuttal. "No, I can't be angry at Takuya because he's clearly only doing this because of the digital problem. Izumi's a great friend, and I would be more than happy to see her and Junpei get married and have six kids, but there is absolutely nothing for Takuya to see in her romantically."

"I wasn't arguing that you should be mad at him," he said quietly, then shifted in his seat, a little confused. "You're um… you're being very strange about this, Kouji."

He hesitated, glancing at him and then away. "You're right. I'm letting my emotions get away from me. I should go calm down," he said, and shoved himself to his feet. "Because I don't care about Takuya. Or Izumi. Or what they do. It has nothing to do with me and I don't care."

Kouichi blinked again as Kouji hurried toward the front of the carriage. "Where are you going?"

"A walk."

"We're in the front carriage. There's only the trailmon in that direction."

"So I'll talk to the trailmon," he snapped, and then stalked through the door, slamming it shut behind him.

Kouichi sighed and collapsed back into his seat, closing his eyes in frustration. He still had no idea what this was related to. Kouji hadn't lashed out, proving that it wasn't about the digimon thing, but he wasn't being entirely logical, which was very strange, for Kouji. The likelihood was that Kouji, in his own irritable way, _was_ jealous. Whether it was of the relationship in general, or because Izumi was closer to Takuya than his supposed best friend, Kouichi didn't know. He wasn't entirely sure it mattered, either.

He lifted his arms to fold behind his head, considering. The good news was that once they got everything fixed, it was likely that Takuya and Izumi would stop sleeping together. Whether that would make everything okay with Kouji was a different matter, because he was infamous for holding grudges. He hoped it would be okay – as much as he cared about his brother, he much preferred to spend time with him when Takuya was around.

Granted, Kouichi had never known Kouji without Takuya, but from the way their father spoke, Kouji had opened up a lot because of the digital world. And their friends put most of it down to Takuya forcing Kouji to join up with them. And remembering those few months right after the digital world when they couldn't find Takuya, and how quiet and stand-offish Kouji had become…

A sudden jerk rocked him out of his concerns, throwing him off the seat with a shout. He hit the floor hard, sliding a metre with the Trailmon's movement, then gasped and sat up as he remembered.

"Kouji!"

With such a sudden stop, anyone outside the carriage would have gone flying off! Kouichi scrambled to his feet and started dashing toward the door, but it opened before he could reach it.

"Izumi," Kouji said, and Kouichi had time to slide to a halt and blink before Kouji left again, leaving the door open to show him climbing up the pipes to reach Worm's back.

"What? Izumi?" he asked, hurrying out onto the platform. "What are you talking about?"

"Izumi! She's up ahead, so we're slowing down to pick her up!" Kouji explained as he clambered out of sight. "She's the Legendary Warrior of Wind, Worm, and there's a bunch of digimon in her fan club, so you better play nice!"

Steam erupted around Worm's base as it huffed. "Tch. You should be grateful I'm even giving you a ride! I'm still not sure I believe you're the Warrior of Light."

"You don't want me to prove it," Kouji warned. "Now shut up and slow down – you're going to overshoot her completely!"

"Who's the trailmon, here? I instinctively know about physics and momentum! I know how to stop!"

Kouichi stared at Worm's back for a moment, then shook his head in disbelief of the conversation and leaned over the platform railing, watching Izumi's pale figure grow larger and more distinct as they continued to slow.

By the time she was in close range and Worm had finally stopped, Kouichi was back in the carriage, leaning back against the wall as he tried to stem a nose bleed.

"Kouji!" he heard her cry, as Kouji's light boots dropped onto the platform again. "Thank goodness you're okay! Uh… what's with the marching uniform?"

"Like you can talk. What is that, lingerie?" he shot back, and Kouichi groaned, burying his face in his hands at the mental picture.

"I know, it's ridiculous, isn't it? I feel like I'm running around in pastel bondage gear."

Kouichi whimpered and slid down to the floor.

"Well, Big Brother's got a coat, I'm sure he won't mind lending it to you before we meet up with Junpei," Kouji said, and Kouichi blanched, then hurriedly started pulling the garment off.

"Kouichi's with you? That's so great! Oh, I hope it was just me on my own, it'll be so much easier to find the others if they're in a group! So, where is he?"

"Here!" Kouichi called, and thrust his coat out the door, keeping his eyes on the luggage rack.

"What are you doing?" asked Kouji. "Come out."

"Can't. Put the coat on, please, Izumi," he said, and there was a pause that he just knew meant they were exchanging looks.

"Put the coat on, please," a new voice mimicked, and Kouichi frowned until Kouji spoke.

"I meant to ask… why is a pipismon following you?"

"Mm… his family was – they're gone. I think he knows something about why we're here."

"Izumi!" Kouichi cried, shaking the coat meaningfully, and Kouji sighed as it was taken.

"What's the matter with you?" he demanded. "You saw Fairymon and Shutsmon in a lot less."

"They were digimon and I was eleven! Please put the coat on, Izumi," he said rapidly. "It's you I don't understand, Kouji. How can you be so calm with that in front of you?"

"Because she's _Izumi_," he said blankly.

"Gee, you really know how to make a girl feel pretty," she replied, and the platform creaked as she stepped up beside him, then poked her head around the door. "It's okay, Kouichi. It's nice to know chivalry isn't completely dead."

"Hmm…" he said, but still refused to turn around until she assured him the coat was on. Then he could turn his attention to the digimon now hanging from the luggage rack opposite him. "You think Pipismon knows something about why we're turning into digimon?"

She frowned, glancing at him before looking up at her new companion. "I think someone might have wanted us to come, and I don't think they're going to be friendly."

* * *

><p>The underground levels were dark and humid, filled with hot air that would have made any normal human struggle to breathe. Takuya, however, was part-fire-type digimon, and was more grossed out by the humidity than anything. He swung his arms for movement, grimacing at the moisture he could feel gathering under the material covering his hands.<p>

The orange dinosaur had stuck with him when he went in search of the underground systems, and it continued gazing up at him in awe. It was getting kind of annoying.

"So," Takuya said suddenly, just to break the silence. "What did you say your name was?"

"Agumon," it said quickly, grinning. "My type used to be considered special, right after you left, because our name was so close to yours."

"Oh yeah, I can see that. Agunimon, Agumon," he said slowly, nodding. "You're a fire-type, too, aren't you?"

"That's right! I came to the Fire Terminal on a quest to find my heritage!" it said cheerfully. "Guess I found you!"

"I'm not really your heritage," he said, but turned away so Agumon couldn't see his incredulous expression. "I just inherited the spirit – I didn't create it or anything."

"No, but my kind can evolve into Greymon!" it cried. "And everyone knows that when you combine with a bunch of other spirits, you evolve into Kaisergreymon, which is definitely related to my line! And your spirit comes from Ancient Greymon – my ancestor! The textbooks say so!"

"Textbooks?" he asked, glancing back.

"Bokomon's Guide to the Legendary Warriors!" it announced. "There's a whole eleven books!"

"Bokomon?" he repeated. "Bokomon actually got around to writing them, then?"

"Oh, yeah, Bokomon-sama became the official scribe of the digital world! And Neemon-sama is his assistant!"

Takuya blinked, his arms pausing their swing as he considered. "Are they still around?"

"No one knows," it confessed, some of the excitement leaving its voice. "No one's seen them, or Sorcerymon, or any of the Holy Court since the Great Angels disappeared."

"Has anyone gone to the Forest Terminal to look for them?"

"The Forest Terminal? You mean to get to the Citadel of Light?" it asked, blinking at him. "Of course not. No one's ever been able to get through the maze of branches. You have to be specially guided – or extremely lucky."

He gazed at it silently for a second, then grimaced and went back to staring at the hole he had come to see. Without a digivice, he probably wouldn't be able to get through the branches, either.

"Um, Warrior of Flame –" Agumon began, but Takuya cringed.

"It's Takuya."

"Takuya-sama –"

"Takuya," he repeated firmly, and Agumon blushed.

"Right… Why exactly are we here?"

He frowned, raising a hand to his hip as he gazed down into the inky blackness below. "This was where Kouji first found his human spirit."

"Kouji is the Warrior of Light! The Grand Strategist of the Shining Pair!" Agumon said, and Takuya's stare shifted to it.

"The grand what of the what pair?"

"The Grand Strategist of the Shining Pair! The real heroes! You were the powerful fighter, and he was the brilliant strategist! Together, you were the unbeatable Shining Pair that could cut through the blackest evil and win the day!" it cheered, and Takuya groaned.

"It wasn't like that! We just got the most individual power – that didn't make us the only heroes. We all fought together to defeat Lucemon," he said, but Agumon just continued grinning at him.

"You must be searching for the Warrior of Light so you two can team up and fight evil again!"

"Or because if anyone's going to have a digivice or be able to get into the Citadel, it's Kouji," he said, still frowning at it. "Geez, though, I mean… what's with the hero worship, Agumon? Not that I'm complaining, but we weren't that cool."

"You deleted Lucemon and purified Cherubimon!" it said, waving its arms as though it could fly. "You were just humans that came in, re-established our link with the real world, and then saved us from ourselves! You awoke the Legendary Spirits that protected us for ten whole years afterward! And now you've come back to bring them back again!"

He grimaced, leaning back. "I really think you've got the wrong idea…"

"No, it's all in the textbooks! Come to my house, I'll show you!"

"But –"

"Come on!" it cried, and grabbed his hand to drag him back toward the exit.

* * *

><p>It was amazing to realise, but all the foundations and the crumbling walls of the Wind Factory were just as they had been the first time.<p>

Junpei walked out the front gates and let himself drop to his knees, staring at the dirt for lack of anything better to do. The foundations had brought back his memory of the battle, and the feeling of power he'd gotten when he'd first found his spirit. He could remember the relief; how thankful he was that he had finally found it; that he finally had proof that he was supposed to be there. That there was a point to his existence in the digital world.

He remembered kicking Snaimon's butt, to free the kokuwamon slaves. He remembered realising, that night, that he was strong. Stronger than the others.

Not more powerful, no… That was Takuya, hands down. But Blitzmon had been all brute strength, which made him bigger and stronger than any of the others. He had never been first at anything before. Not in school grades, not in sport, not in friends… it was why he learned magic tricks. It was the one thing he could do that no one else could.

But in the digital world, he had been first in brute strength.

He sighed and shifted back onto his hands, smiling at the sky. It had been a real blow to his ego when the others got their beast spirits, and their strength beat Blitzmon's by far, but he'd learned to deal. Not only was his beast spirit stronger still, but he had other things to bring to the team. He was smart. He found side solutions. And he was still strong.

"Human?"

He lowered his head to see an adult kokuwamon stepping around the ruined gates, and pushed himself upright. "My name's Junpei."

"Human," it repeated evenly, and he sat back again, deciding his respect was better wasted on someone else.

"Yeah? Something wrong?"

"If you're really a human child, you come from the real world, don't you?" it asked, and he raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah, of course. What about it?"

"You should be careful, wandering around unprotected," it said, moving forward as slowly and gracefully as a kokuwamon could. "You're not safe here."

"Yeah, I figured that out the first time I came here," he said irritably. "The bunch of pagumon trying to kill me for chocolate kinda tipped me off."

"Chocolate?" it repeated. "It's not chocolate we want. Chocolate can be made and bought here. ToyTown trades it by the crate full. Chocolate's not interesting."

Junpei frowned, sitting forward again. "I didn't think digimon liked the human world much."

"Your story gains credibility when you say that. Some of the older kokuwamon say that twenty years ago, humans were strange at best; disgusting at worst." It paused a good metre away from him, looking around rather than meet his gaze. "But things have changed. Humans have saved our world, now, and become legends."

Junpei grinned, but didn't comment. Kokuwamon turned its gaze back to him. "Now the great texts tell us stories of the grand human warriors, and the world that raised them. The human world begets power."

"Begets?" he repeated, and the digimon frowned.

"Powers comes from the human world. It is a place of creation, and raises great warriors," it explained. "Those warriors were humans: weak, supposedly powerless creatures with no special abilities and no connection to nature. Imagine what a great world like that could do to a digimon. We could become legendary! Stronger and more powerful than the Great Angels ever dreamt of being!"

"The human world isn't that great. We were powerful because we connected with the Legendary Warriors – digimon," he added, raising his eyebrows again. "The human world is just… home. Nothing special."

"But we don't know that," Kokuwamon said urgently. "We see strength and hear of power. Surely, anything from a world that great, be it creatures or objects, must be powerful! You have to understand, there are digimon who want that power. They will do anything they can to possess it."

Junpei frowned, slowly climbing to his feet. "Is that a threat?"

"A warning. You are not safe here. Even if you had been brought here against your will, you would be tempting," it said. "That you say you came here by your own will – you have the power to cross the gap, perhaps become a bridge between worlds! Digimon want to be stronger. They want the power of the human world. They want to go to the human world."

"They might try to use us to get across," he surmised, and Kokuwamon hunched forward in a nod.

"Some will just try to take your possessions. But others, those that are brave, reckless and stupid, will try to take you," it said quietly. "You must understand your situation, human. Cowardly, intelligent digimon will avoid you, because where you go, you will be followed by strong, stupid digimon. You will be hunted and feared."

"Then who are we supposed to trust?" he demanded, and Kokuwamon shook its head.

"You're not safe here."

Junpei frowned, pulling back as he raised his fists. "If everyone's either trying to avoid us or hunt us, then how come you're telling me all this? Is this some bad guy monologue that happens before you try and kill me?"

Kokuwamon just stared back at him silently for a moment, then smiled. "I am telling you this because I am twenty-three years old. I remember being young. I remember this Factory as it was. As a slave camp. I remember listening as my friend's grandfather told a group of human children about our plight, and I remember watching their leader decide to save us. I remember listening to those humans plot our escape. I remember one brave human that empathised with us, and understood why we hadn't tried to run away before. I remember that human was the one that truly saved us. And I remember what he looked like."

Junpei blushed, pulling his fists back to his side. "Then –"

"You are not that human," it said suddenly, all smiles gone. "That human is true unity between the two worlds, and would definitely make an ideal bridge between them. He would be more tempting than ten ordinary humans. There would be nothing that could save him."

His eyes widened, and he hurried forward to kneel down in front of Kokuwamon. "That human was one of the Chosen Children that got the Legendary Spirits, but he wasn't one of the strongest. Would the others be more… tempting?"

"If they were in this world, the Shining Pair would be the most valuable treasures in all the digital world," it said quietly. "If Lucemon hadn't revived, Light and Flame could have brought this world to a higher plain."

Junpei swore and shoved himself to his feet again. "Thank you. I have to go."

"Where?" it asked.

"I – the Fire Terminal. The – the Forest Terminal. Cherubimon's castle, I don't know!" he cried, and brought his hands to his head, staring at nothing. "I don't know where to go, but I have to find them! I have to tell them! Takuya could never keep his mouth shut about this stuff! He's probably already told someone!"

"Then you should consider him lost."

"Never!" he shouted, then groaned and spun in place, gripping his hair tighter. "But where would he be? If he came out where he found his human spirit, then it's the Fire Terminal. But it'll take days to get there on foot, and if he's not there, then…! And I have to tell Tomoki – Takuya'll kill me if I let anything happen to him! And Izumi! Oh, god, Izumi!"

"I suggest you stay with us until you can find a way to go home, human," Kokuwamon said simply. "If the others are who you imply, then they will have been taken by the time you find them. You may be as well. You are not safe; you should hide."

"I'm not leaving my friends!" he snapped, then dropped his hands and looked out the ruined gate. "I don't care what happens to me. It doesn't matter which world I'm in, I'm not that important. But they are. And they're my friends. I'm going to find them, and tell them."

He took a deep, steadying breath, then broke into a run, just heading out the gates and set on heading to Breeze. He might meet Izumi there, or it at least was on the way to the Fire Terminal. He was going to find his friends.

Kokuwamon stared after him silently for a few moments, then smiled and clicked its magnets together. "Good luck, big brother…"

* * *

><p>"Okay, stop and go over it again," Kouji said, ignoring Izumi and Kouichi's groans of frustration. "Pipismon? Human children…"<p>

"Human children… The human children are lost in the digital world again," it parroted, happily swinging in place from the luggage rack. "They'll recreate their digivices before long."

He closed his eyes, letting that roll through his mind before he nodded. "Okay. What should we do?"

"What should we do? What should we do? We have to find the gateway before they find out about our plan!" it cried, and flapped its wings so much that it almost slipped horizontal. "Where is it? That's your job to figure out!"

"The gateway…" he murmured. "What's the gateway?"

"What's the gateway?" it repeated, and Kouji's eyebrow ticked in annoyance. Pipismon had gotten increasingly hyperactive with all the attention it was getting, and rarely let a sentence go by without having it repeated.

"I'm almost certain pipismon can talk on their own," Kouichi said, gazing at it thoughtfully. "I don't understand why this one won't."

"This one won't!"

"I think it's been scarred by what happened to its family," Izumi said quietly. "It saw its whole world destroyed by whoever it was listening to. I'm amazed it can still fly, let alone smile like that."

"It's fine," Kouji said, before that could be repeated.

"It's fine!"

"I need it to tell me exactly what it heard. And this is good enough," he said firmly, then looked up at Pipismon again, waiting for it to stop chattering. "When I find it…"

"When I find it…" it repeated, with perfect pitch and emphasis, before starting again. "When I find it, what am I supposed to do? I'll need help to catch it. We'll come to that when we do – just find it first."

Kouji paused, then pushed his hands up over his face and hair. "There's no clue as to who it is it heard. No names, no accent, nothing…"

"As we figured out the second time we heard it," Izumi pointed out. "And the fifth. And the sixth, and the _fifteenth_…"

"I think we're only up to ten," Kouichi said wearily.

"It's still so many times that I could repeat it just as well as Pipismon," she said, and then sighed, slumping back in her seat as she looked at Kouji. "What are you looking for? There's nothing there except that someone dangerous is looking for some kind of gateway, and they want to do it before we can get our digivices and stop them."

"They're looking for something else, too. You can't catch a gateway – they want something else," he said, ignoring her. He stood up and walked over to the door portal, staring out at the dark landscape. They had been travelling almost the whole day now, and were still nowhere near the border. "What kind of gateway are they looking for? To what? There shouldn't be anything locked away any more."

"My question is in how you recreated your digivice," Kouichi said, blinking slowly as he fought a losing battle to stay awake. "Is it because you used one of Wolfmon's attacks? Or because you defeated a digimon? Do we all get one, or just you?"

"Yeah, let's talk about that, instead," Izumi said, sitting up straight again and clapping her hands. "A nice change of subject will do us good. Did you just pick up a stick and whack Cereberomon, or what?"

Kouji didn't answer, just continued staring out at the passing landscape. Izumi sighed, feeling her shoulders slump.

"Whoever it is, they're definitely trouble," she said quietly. "As long as we're here, it's just a matter of time before they find us. It's no use worrying about it when we have other things to worry about."

"We have to find the others and fix _us_ before we start trying to fix the world," Kouichi pointed out. "That'll be much easier if we know the full extent of what's going on."

"That's right… maybe you getting your digivice is the digital world equivalent of Takuya turning into Flamon," she suggested. "You should try evolving – just to see what happens. Are you Wolfmon, or some less-evolved digimon?"

"Or do you just have the digivice to hold the data of the digimon you destroy?" finished Kouichi. "We need to know this. We need to know if we'll be able to get involved this time."

Kouji's eyes narrowed, before he suddenly spun around and walked back down the aisle to sit on the very last seat. He didn't look at them, but pulled his legs up and lay down, folding his arms behind his head. "If you don't think there's a need to talk about things we can understand, I'm going to sleep."

They both sighed and exchanged glances, but recognised the tone in Kouji's voice. He was done for the night, and they wouldn't get anything more out of him until morning at the earliest.

"I'll stay awake," Izumi offered, as Kouichi grimaced. "I'm not tired enough to sleep, and someone should be always be awake in case something happens."

"Are you sure? I can –"

"You're already half asleep," she interrupted, grinning. "Don't worry. I'll wake one of you up in a few hours and get some rest then. Until then, I have Pipismon for company. Ne?" she added to the babbling digimon.

"Ne!" it replied happily, and Izumi winked as Kouichi shrugged and stretched out to sleep.

Kouji, however, rolled onto his side where the others definitely couldn't see and opened his eyes to glare at the seat cushion. He didn't care about evolving or digivices – as nice and comforting as it was, that was supposed to all be behind them now. What he was worried about was this gateway, whatever it was those people were trying to catch, and where the hell the rest of his friends were. This whole trip was just getting worse by the second.

"Damn you, Takuya," he muttered, and clenched his eyes shut in search of sleep.

* * *

><p>The longer Takuya read the textbooks, the more convinced he became about his need to track Bokomon down and beat him over the head with all eleven volumes.<p>

Bokomon had been a nice, if obsessive, overdramatic and completely neurotic digimon they'd met their first day in the digital world. He and his friend Neemon, a vaguely rabbit-looking digimon that was a little disconnected from reality, had decided to come with them on their journey across the digital world, and it had been lucky they had. Their knowledge of the world, and the guide book Bokomon could pull out of nowhere, had helped them in a hundred different ways. As they'd been leaving, thrown out of the world without so much as a by-your-leave, Bokomon had promised to write their story, for all the world to remember.

He winced as he read the description of his first evolution into Vrytramon, noting how it didn't even mention how close he came to killing his friends, instead rambling for an entire chapter about how he saved an innocent digimon from the corrupted beast spirit and subdued it through force of will. He sighed, flicking through to read how Tomoki saved him, only to discover the spluttered words of honour and strength were now a melodramatic speech in full archaic prose.

All the stories were the same, with each of their personalities changed to make them more heroic and legendary. In the books, Takuya found himself to be a determined hero that always knew exactly the right thing to say. Junpei was a wise professor that knew everything intellectual. Tomoki spoke more like a priest than an eight year old. Izumi was a gloriously feminine warrior, and the more he read, the more Takuya could swear his memory was changed until her purple, sporty outfit had instead become long flowing robes of silk.

He slapped the book closed, rolling his eyes up to the ceiling. Even his relationship with Kouji was glorified into the perfect partnership: there was no sign of their arguments in the books; they just worked off each other with friendly timing.

After a moment, he looked back down at Agumon, who was still staring at him with shimmering eyes. He grimaced, glancing off to the side. "Uhh… you know, it wasn't really like this."

"You really are modest!" it cried happily. "In book eleven, it tells of how you asked to leave the digital world so that no digimon could ever hold you in the esteem you deserved! Some of my friends said it wasn't true, but now I know it is!"

He winced again. "We left because we had to…"

But Agumon didn't seem to have heard him, still bouncing around the small study like he could fly. The house, like most buildings in the Fire Terminal, was built in the shape of a stone furnace, and almost as hot. The rooms were small and curved, and Agumon's house was cluttered with books, but aside from the content of most of them, Takuya had to say he liked it. The heat felt comfortably warm on his skin, and the area had once been home to his Legendary Warrior for a reason.

He set the books aside and stood up to walk past Agumon and out into the living area, smiling when the little dinosaur quickly followed him out. "Hey, thanks for showing those to me. At least now I know what people've been told about what we did."

"Not at all! I'm just glad I got to meet you!"

"Yeah… I wish you could've met the others too. I think you'd like Tomoki – he doesn't talk like he does in the books, and he's a really cool kid," he said, ducking out the front door to look around at the terminal. "I should start looking for them. I've got no idea where to start…"

"You could stay here and wait for them!" Agumon suggested. "I wouldn't mind giving you my bed! I could sleep on the couch!"

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Thanks, but no. I've really got to find my friends. It's a big world and they might be spread out all over," he said, then blinked as he noticed movement from the corner of his eye. He turned on instinct, raising his eyebrows at the sight of several pagumon trying to move a large wooden beam. The most flattering description of pagumon was that they were pale pink heads with long, ribbon like ears, and that beam was wider than they were round. They were trying to balance it between their ears as they hopped along. "What're they doing?"

"Oh, they're building a shrine," Agumon said lightly, skipping around to stand in front of him. "Everyone else helps on days off, but the pagumon are small, so it's taking a really long time."

Takuya frowned, then cringed as one of the pagumon lost its balance and was almost crushed as the beam slipped. "Hey, hold on, guys!" he cried, and hurried over to pick it up off their heads, easily hefting it up and over his shoulder. "Take it easy – this thing is huge!"

They stared up at him for a moment, and he frowned, looking around for their site. "Where are you taking this thing, anyway? Don't you have a better way of moving stuff?"

"No. We're too small to use the cart, and the other digimon can't help today," said one. "What's it to you, anyway?"

"Look, you're gonna hurt yourselves moving things like this. Can't you get someone to help? Agumon?" he asked, looking around, but the dinosaur just blinked.

"I help in the library, I don't have time to build things!" it said helplessly. "I'm already in trouble for missing work today!"

"Alright, how about this? A shrine can't be that big," Takuya reasoned, turning back to the pagumon. "I'll move all the materials you need from wherever to your building site. That way you guys won't hurt yourselves, and you can use all your time building instead of just moving stuff. How about it?"

The pagumon exchanged glances, their red eyes speaking silently before the leader looked up at him again. "And what do you get out of it?"

He grinned, holding up a finger. "You guys help me get a trailmon pass."

"No way!" they all cried, and he raised his eyebrows as the leader jumped up and down. "One day's work for a whole trailmon pass? You've gotta be kidding! Those things are expensive!"

"Come on, it'd take you guys ages to move this stuff!"

"Nuh-uh," it said firmly, and Takuya frowned, then clicked his fingers and turned back to Agumon.

"Hey, is that offer to stay at your house still up? I'll take the couch and help out with the cooking and stuff…"

"Of course!" Agumon said brightly, clapping its claws together. "You don't have to help out at all!"

"Thanks!" he said, then turned back to the pagumon. "How about this? I help you build the whole shrine, however long it takes. Is that worth a trailmon pass?"

They all smiled in creepy unison, and Takuya squared his shoulders under the beam, suddenly concerned over what he had just offered up. He did have friends to find…

"Sure," the leader said, and Agumon clapped his claws again.

"Great! I'll go tell the others!"

"What others?" asked Takuya, before apPagumon suddenly head butted him in the back.

"This way! We're building our shrine over there!" it said cheerfully, and Takuya obediently began walking, keeping his eyes on Agumon's quickly retreating back.

He wasn't sure why, but he got the feeling he had just missed something kinda important.

* * *

><p><em>[Continue…?]<em>


	9. Heart

_**Rebooted – Chapter Eight**_

Heart

**TRUFAX: **Renamon, by default, does not necessarily evolve into anything or from anything. It's one of those digimon that changes evolution depending on circumstance. For the sake of this story, however, we're going with the Kyuubimon-as-champion theory.

Also, we meet one of the non-canons this chapter…

* * *

><p>There was no warning, and they hadn't been paying attention anyway, so when Worm finally broke out of the darkness and onto a bright, sunny bridge, Kouji, Kouichi and Izumi all cried out in pain.<p>

Naturally inclined toward light as he was, Kouji recovered quickly enough, and he immediately stuck his head out the window, taking a deep breath and simply basking in the sunlight.

"This is the third time in two days that I've been completely blinded," Kouichi muttered, shielding his eyes with both hands. "Why can't light ever just gradually come on like a sunrise is supposed to?"

"Are you okay?" Izumi asked gently, and he peeked through his fingers to give her a weak smile.

"I'll be fine."

She smiled back and then turned around on her seat to join Kouji in leaning out the window. Her hair flew back from her shoulders and she folded her arms, leaning out over the lowered glass to gaze past Kouji's shoulder to the track ahead. For a minute, neither of them spoke, just enjoying the finally changed view, before Kouji glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He hesitated, then grimaced and lowered his eyes to the flashing ground below.

"About how I've been treating you lately," he said, his words almost lost in the wind, "I'm sorry."

She raised her eyebrows, and raised her own voice to point out, "I was the one that nearly hit you."

"No, even before that. I've been avoiding you for almost a year now," he said, and then pulled his head back inside, tugging on her sleeve to make her do the same. They turned around, and Kouji crossed his legs, leaning one arm over the back of the seat to avoid looking at her. "I'd like to say it's because of whatever this thing is that happened to Takuya, but I don't know if it is. All I know is that I've been treating you badly, and I want to apologise."

She smiled, hunching her shoulders and slipping her hands between her thighs. "I appreciate that."

He hesitated, then glanced over his shoulder to offer up a small smile, and she returned it with a grin. He sighed, letting his arm drop down and turning to face her properly. "I know part of it was because you guys were dating. I understand why, now, but at the time, I thought you were just doing it for the sex… you know… because you could. It annoyed me."

"Yeah… I can't say all my anger at you over the last couple of months has been related to the whole digimon thing either," she said, blushing. "I don't know, Kouji, sometimes I just don't understand you, you know? We never really learned to talk to each other like we did with the others."

"You were a girl. I thought girls were weird when we were kids," he said, and she giggled.

"I had a crush on you, right up until… right up until we hit the dark area. You were cute, you know."

"Past tense carefully ignored."

"Hey, you don't think I'm a girl anymore."

They chuckled, and Kouichi peeked through his fingers again to look at them, confused. Although he still couldn't really see with the light still blinding his unadjusted eyes, they seemed to be having the pleasant conversation of good friends. Considering how they'd been at each other's throats for the last few days, it was more than a little strange. He closed his eyes and lowered his hands again, waiting the glare out as he listened to them talk.

"I think a lot of it is because… Takuya's my best friend," Kouji said awkwardly. "And even though I know it's going to happen with girls and it's stupid of me to be upset, it felt like you were trying to cut me out of his life sometimes."

"Sometimes I was," she admitted, biting her lip. "It was just the animal instinct in me talking, but you were a distraction that made Takuya ignore me. And other times, you were just _there_ when I wanted to talk to him… and I didn't like the way you looked at him."

"Huh?"

She shook her head silently, then released one hand in offering. "Whatever it is, it's over now. Friends again?"

"Friends," he agreed, taking her hand to shake. They smiled at each for a moment, before dropping their hands, and Izumi turned back to the window. Kouji leaned back in the seat to keep looking at her. "So, after we get all this fixed and go back home, what do you think the two of you are going to do?"

"I'm going to tell my parents that after three years, Takuya and I realised it just wasn't working out, and they can stop planning the wedding," she said wearily, then shot him a grin. "Then I'm going to enjoy being very, very single, and only have vicarious relationships through my girlfriends."

"You're kidding," he said, staring at her, but she just kept grinning.

"Don't get me wrong, boyfriends are great, but when you're just doing it for the carnal pleasure…" She shook her head. "I want love and romance. I don't care what my next boyfriend says or how hot he is, I'm going to take things very, very slow."

He nodded his approval. "That's how relationships are supposed to work."

"You're so old fashioned," she teased, and then stuck her head out the window to feel the wind. "Ahh, this makes me want to fly again…"

Kouichi finally managed to get his eyes open, and blinked rapidly as he tilted his head back to look up at Pipismon. The digimon had fallen asleep a good hour before they had left the darkness, and didn't seem like it would be waking up any time soon, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Any time they didn't have to listen to Kouji interrogate the poor thing _again_ was good time, as far as Kouichi was concerned.

"Hey… hey, guys," Izumi said, and the boys looked up as she waved at them to join her. "What's that?"

"What's what?" asked Kouichi, wincing as they leaned out into the sunshine. "Where are we supposed to be looking?"

"Up there, on the tracks ahead," she said slowly. "It looks like a pile of garbage."

"What would garbage be doing in the middle of a trailmon roadway?" asked Kouichi, but Kouji silently narrowed his eyes and pulled his head back into the carriage so he could reach his backpack. Kouichi frowned and pulled back to watch him. "What are you doing?"

"I don't think it's garbage," he said quietly, taking out his digivice. "It looks like someone's blocking our path."

The other two exchanged glances, then grabbed at the seats as Worm suddenly began to slow. Kouji only stumbled once before leading the way toward the carriage door, where he gripped the railing and leaned out. "You stopping?"

"Can't run without open track!" Worm called back, and Kouji smirked.

"I'll clear it for you if you promise to take us to Akiba Market."

"Isn't that what I was doing already?"

Kouji gave it a long, appraising look, then nodded. "So long as you remember that," he said as they came to a stop, a good several metres away from the huge pile of spare parts that were heaped on the train line ahead. He hesitated as Izumi stepped up behind him, and they exchanged glances before jumping off to inspect it.

"What would that junk pile be doing out here in the middle of nowhere?" Kouichi asked as he leaned against the platform railing, staring at their ocean surroundings. "It's not exactly –"

"Junk!" a voice suddenly shouted, and Kouji threw out an arm to keep Izumi back. The three teenagers watched in horrified fascination as the junk pile lurched upward, forming a vaguely human shape as it twisted toward them. "You think I'm a pile of junk, don't you? Of course you do. I look like junk. I'm useless. I am junk."

Izumi could only blink, struggling not to laugh. The creature, whatever it was, spoke in a slow, devastated voice as if on the verge of tears, and she automatically felt bad for it, but it was hard to take something seriously when its head was an upside-down boomerang perched on a rusty soup can.

Kouji just stared at it silently for a moment, taking in everything he could. It didn't look like any digimon he'd ever met before, but he knew he hadn't really met that many. It looked like it was made from spare parts and garbage: Old microwaves, televisions, toys, auto-parts and rubbish joined together around what might have been a human shape at one point. He took a slow step forward, subtly pushing his digivice into his pocket. "Hello."

"Don't bother trying to be pleasant with me," the creature cried melodramatically. "I know it's just pity. I'll take pity, but you'll get sick of it soon and really hate me. Let's just get it over with."

"Right. Get off the tracks then," Worm shouted, and Izumi winced as the creature heaved a heavy sigh.

"I'm in your way. Of course I am. I'm in everybody's way." The creature paused, leaning down as if it had eyes to peer into Kouji's. "I think I used to be helpful, you know. Maybe not helpful, but I did have a point. I was strong. But not very clever. Smart, but not clever. I wasn't any use really."

"Uh –" he began, but the creature didn't stop.

"Now I really am in everybody's way. Labu is nice and tries to put up with me, but he just gets mad after a while. Says I'm depressing. I suppose I am. But thinking about that makes me sad, which makes me more depressing, he says, and it's endless," The creature sighed again and slumped back down into half a pile of garbage, only human-shaped from the 'waist' up. "Dependensu is nice too, but she can't really help it. And she deserves someone better, someone she really can depend on. Not like me. I always mess up or fail at the wrong moments. I'm so useless."

"I'm sure that's not true!" Izumi cried, hurrying forward. "You must be of great help to somebody! You seem like a nice person, after all!"

"A depressing person, more like," Kouji muttered to himself. "If a person at all."

"I'm not even worthy of being called a person!" the creature wailed, and Izumi spun around to glare at Kouji, who just raised his eyebrows in response.

She rolled her eyes and turned around again, reaching out to touch the creature's 'shoulder'. "Come on, now, Kouji didn't mean it. He says stuff like that all the time and he really doesn't mean it. Here, what's your name?"

"You don't want to know. It's not a nice name like 'Kouji'."

"I'm sure it's a great name, come on."

The creature looked up at her, then sighed again. "Serufuheetoredo. The others all call me Serufu."

"That's a beautiful name!" she said, but it just shook its head.

"You're lying to make me feel better so I'll move out of your way."

"Did it work?" asked Kouji, and he scowled as Worm's laughter blew his hair into his face.

"There's no point in moving," Serufu said. "Anywhere I go, I'll just be in your way. I'm in everyone's way."

Kouji threw up his hands and looked around at Kouichi for suggestions. He just grimaced and shrugged, keeping his eyes on the creature.

"Alright, now, that is just not true," Izumi said firmly. "I know you have some good qualities – everyone does!"

"I have one good quality," it said, lifting its head again. "I can see my own faults."

"Oh, Serufu," she sighed, then crouched down to look up at it. "Let's talk a little while – I'm sure I can find something great about you. You don't have 'mon' on the end of your name. You're not a digimon, are you?"

"No. I used to be, but that was before I got so pathetic."

"What kind of digimon did you used to be?" she asked, and it heaved another sigh.

"What does it matter? I was just as useless then, and I can't change back anyway."

She pursed her lips, drumming her fingers against her knees for a few seconds before forcing a smile. "Well, I don't believe that you're so bad. You seem perfectly nice to me. What do you think's so wrong with you?"

"I'm useless."

"How are you useless?"

"I can't fight anyone. I'm weak and powerless and stupid and useless. I've lost all my powers."

Izumi grimaced in empathy. "Fighting's not everything. I was never very powerful at fighting, and I lost those powers I did have years ago," she said gently, and then stood up. "But I learned other skills instead! I bet you can too!"

"Can't do it," it said firmly.

"Everyone can!" she insisted. "I never thought I could do my old attacks, and I can't, but I can do the movements! It's just like before, but without the power!"

Serufu hesitated, and the blunt pencils that passed for its fingers drew a pattern in the dirt. "I bet it's not the same. Someone as pretty as you can't have been a real warrior or anything."

"I was! I was the Legendary Warrior of Wind!" she said, and it jerked, then slowly lifted its head as if to look at her.

"But… you couldn't copy those attacks now."

"No, I don't have the old powers," she agreed, then pumped her fist triumphantly. "But I took years of gymnastics and dance classes and I can do a Tornado Gamba! Just without the power!"

It drew another pattern in the dirt. "But… you couldn't kick anyone."

"I could," she said defensively. "I can balance and aim just like I used to!"

Yet another pattern. "Bet you couldn't kick me."

"Bet I could!" she shot back.

"No."

"I'll show you!" she cried, and peeled off the borrowed coat.

Kouichi immediately squeaked and shoved himself out of his viewing angle, then groaned at Kouji and Worm's snickers. "It's you that has the problem, Kouji!"

Izumi ignored the boys behind her and stepped back, spreading her arms in balance preparation before flipping up onto her hands. The tight skirt slid up around her hips as she spread her legs down, but a quick glance at Kouji showed that he was more bored than perverted, so she just took a deep breath and began turning on her hands. "See? I just used to spin like this, walking forward, and then –" She grinned as the memory of power came back. "_Tornado Gamba_!"

She had been expecting her foot to just clang against the creature's metal body and bounce off, aching and sore. She'd done it in gymnastics class before, kicking an upright mat that, despite its soft padding, had still given her a three-hour limp. The last thing she was expecting was for her hair to swirl up around her in a whirlwind of air, spinning up her body in a familiar thermal wave to explode off her foot. She felt her heel connect with something hard, but stay stiff and ready, knocking it out of place and away.

"Izumi!" Kouji shouted. "That wasn't fake!"

"What?" She immediately flipped back to her feet, her arms spread for balance as she tried to see what he'd meant, then froze. Serufu's boomerang head was missing from its soup can neck, and its body was beginning to shine with a familiar blue light. "Serufu!"

"It worked!" its voice cried, and both she and Kouji rushed forward to see the boomerang resting a good metre behind what was now a pile of shining digicode. Izumi gaped at it, but the disembodied voice continued. "Puraido said it would, but I didn't believe him. So stupid…! But it worked! I made you use a real attack and kill me!"

"What…?" she whispered, and Kouji shoved her behind him, glaring down at the boomerang.

"What the hell is going on here? What're you talking about?"

It chuckled. "Puraido said you would have real attacks! Modesuti said that if I could make one of you use them on me, I could die and finally stop being such a burden!" It sighed happily, and Kouji glanced back as Izumi whimpered and pushed into his shoulder.

"It's not your fault," he muttered, then went back to glaring at the boomerang even as it too began to glow. "Who's Puraido? How do we get back our attacks?"

"He'll be so mad at me… but who can blame him?" it mumbled, before becoming full data and streaming up into digicode. Kouji flinched back as it flew toward him, but it slipped under his arm to slide into Izumi's boot, and they both stared at it for a moment before she reached in and pulled out her newly reformed digivice.

* * *

><p>Kouichi turned the two digivices over in his hands, letting his eyes linger on the differences that marked Kouji's as more advanced; capable of holding more spirits and producing more power. He shook his head and looked up at Kouji, who was standing near the door, rocking with the trailmon's movement and watching him closely. "I don't understand."<p>

"Don't understand," Pipismon chorused, but they both glared until it closed its mouth.

"What it said was that if we can mimic our old powers, we can use them just the same," Kouji said quietly, turning his attention back to his brother. "I used Licht Ziegel. Izumi used Tornado Gamba. As for how we got the digivices back, I'm assuming it's just because we need somewhere to hold the purified data."

He frowned, looking down to the other end of the carriage, where Izumi was curled up on a seat, toying with one of the meal cabbages they'd found in Worm's insides. She hadn't spoken since destroying Serufuheetoredo, no matter how many times they insisted it wasn't her fault. He hesitated, then sighed and lifted Kouji's digivice as a warning before he threw it to him. "Do you think we can all do that?"

"I don't know. Give it a try."

"How?" he asked, gesturing at nothing. "All my attacks were fairly dependent on my body at the time. How am I supposed to form an Endlich Meteor from my stomach?"

Kouji sighed and shrugged, slipping his digivice into his backpack, once again slung over his shoulder. "Find a spear-like object and try the other attacks, maybe."

"I guess," he said, and bowed his head back over Izumi's digivice, absently tapping the button that had once shown the spirits. It flashed up with the symbol of Wind, then a blank square, before a new image came up, and Kouichi almost dropped the device. "Lowemon!"

Izumi's head jerked up, and Kouji darted over to peer over his shoulder at the screen. Sure enough, Lowemon was gazing back up at them, his crimson eyes heavy and tired, but still as deep and aware as they ever had been.

"What the hell is Lowemon doing in Izumi's digivice?" Kouji murmured, before Izumi suddenly scrambled over to snatch it away, her cabbage dropped back on the seat.

"Let me try something," she said, before performing a complicated turn in place and holding out her hand. They all stared at it hopefully, but although her hand did glow with familiar blue light, no code appeared. They sighed, and she held it out to Kouichi. "Maybe you should try."

"It's your digivice," he pointed out, but she shook her head.

"It's your spirit."

He frowned, then stood up, taking the digivice in one hand and lifting the other above his head. They looked up at it, then gasped as it burst into light, a thick line of data springing up around his palm.

"Yes!" Izumi cried, clapping her hands.

"That's more like it," said Kouji, and Kouichi grinned.

"Alright…! Human Spirit Evolution!" he shouted, bringing the code to scanner. But when the two touched, the light faded, and they all blinked as the code continued silently revolving around his hand, digivice resting peacefully in the other.

Izumi bit her lip. "Guess it has to be your digivice."

"Guess so," he agreed, and clenched his fist to disperse the code before handing the device back. "Sorry."

She shook her head, waving her hand in dismissal as she headed back to her seat. "We'll just have to wait for something else to go wrong."

The boys exchanged glances, then sighed and turned back to their own thoughts. There wasn't really much to say when she was right like that.

* * *

><p>It was slow going waking up. After almost an hour of debate, Agumon had realised that Takuya wasn't going to take its bed, and had then disappeared for a few hours before returning with several unfamiliar digimon, carrying a new, even larger bed. They had set it up in the now cleared study, and Takuya had realised he wasn't going to win a fight surrounding it.<p>

The weird thing was that after dinner, he had barely been able to keep his eyes open. And now he was waking up, it was with a killer headache, almost as bad as the pain from when he had changed into Flamon. And he had the weird feeling that he'd slept longer than just one night.

He buried his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes in the process to make himself wake up. His headache slowly faded to a dull ache, and he lowered one hand to stare at his knees. The clearer his head became, the more certain he was that it had been at least forty hours since he'd lain down. He didn't know how he knew, but there was no ignoring the feeling.

"Ah, Takuya-sama, you're awake!"

He looked up from under his eyebrows to see Agumon standing in the doorway. "How long did I sleep?"

"Well, it is late," it said, glancing away as if looking for a clock that Takuya knew wasn't there. "It's almost noon. But of course you were tired after your trip here, so I didn't want to wake you. Though the Pagumon are getting impatient."

He frowned, then lowered his gaze back to his knees. It was a ridiculous feeling, but he couldn't help it… "I only slept the one night?"

"Of course," Agumon said blankly, staring at him. "Are you feeling alright, Takuya-sama?"

"It's just Takuya," he said absently, then lifted his head to look around the room. His shirt, belt and jacket were hanging over the back of Agumon's chair, so he stood up to put them on. "I'm probably not awake yet."

"Of course. Come on, I made breakfast! Humans eat rice, don't they?"

He nodded absently, stretching his fingers into place under the coarse material. It had to be just a feeling.

* * *

><p>"Akiba Market," Worm announced, shuffling them out of the carriage with a burst of steam. "Now, I'm going to sleep for a while. You humans leave me alone, alright?"<p>

"Leave me alone; alone, I'm lonely!" Pipismon sang, and Kouichi glanced up at it as Kouji nodded to Worm.

"Thanks for the ride."

"You helped us out a lot," Izumi said, bowing to the trailmon. "Really, thank you."

"Hmph!" it said gruffly, and hurried out of the station, leaving the three teenagers to exchange glances and turn towards the town at large.

"So what do we do now?" Kouichi asked, staring down at the bustling digimon. "Wait for another Trailmon to come along and threaten it, too?"

"Threaten it, threaten it!" Pipismon chirped.

"I think we should look around, see what the gossip is," Izumi suggested, setting a hand on her hip. "Worm and Pipismon are the only digimon we've really spoken to. Maybe we can find out more information about this Labu person, or if any of the others have been making themselves known."

"This is the area of Ice," Kouichi agreed, his eyebrow twitching as he had to speak over Pipismon repeating all their words. "Who knows? Maybe Tomoki's around here somewhere."

"I don't know… it's hard to tell since we were in the dark for so long, but it has to have been at least a few days since we got here," she pointed out. "Surely he would have moved on by now."

"When Takuya isn't around, Tomoki's pretty sensible," he argued. "He would try and find some legal way to get on a Trailmon. If nothing else, we'll hear information about him, if he's been here."

"Maybe. But where do we start looking? And do we really want to make ourselves known like that?" she asked, and gestured to Pipismon. "All it's told us is that there are bad guys looking for us, and Serufu kind of confirmed it a little."

"True… what do you think, Kouji?" he asked, but let his voice trail off as he turned to look at him. His brother was staring into the distance, his gaze locked on the giant furnace that warmed the town. Kouichi frowned, looking from it to Kouji and back again, then reached out to shake Kouji's shoulder and bring him back to the conversation. "Na, Kouji? What do you think we should do?"

He glanced at them, then sighed and nodded. "We should go down and see if we can find any information, but keep to the sides. Don't advertise that we're human, and never admit to being a Legendary Warrior. If someone asks, say that we are human, we don't know how we got here, and we've never been here before."

"Okay. Should we have a meeting place or something?" Izumi asked, and Kouji nodded again.

"We'll meet at the Stove Tower in three hours. Directly under the opening," he said, pointing to it. "Big Brother, you should ask around the stores; you're good at dealing with people. Izumi, maybe you should check the restaurants – see if you can scrounge anything for us to eat."

"That is by far the best idea you've ever had," she announced, and he smirked. She had always had a disturbing appetite, and it had only gotten worse as she got older.

"Maybe we should get something for Worm, too," Kouichi said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We did kind of eat all the food he had stored inside him."

"True. Here, take your coat back," she said, starting to slide it off her shoulders. "Male digimon are as easy to manipulate as boys, and I'll need the advantage if we're going to get enough food."

"I- Izumi!" he cried, turning away to hide his blush, but the other two just laughed.

"Right. I'll check the back alleys and general market," Kouji said, holding up a hand in farewell as he started heading into town. "See you guys in three hours!"

"Later, Kouichi!" Izumi said, tossing his coat over his head as she hurried after.

Kouichi groaned and pulled it down, gripping it like a lifesaver. "That skirt is going to kill me."

"Boys are easy to manipulate!" Pipismon said cheerfully, and he rolled his head back to look at it.

"Just because you change the word order, that doesn't make it any more helpful."

"Going to kill me!"

"If you don't shut up, it's a possibility," he said lightly, and Pipismon grinned as it followed him down after his friends.

* * *

><p>Walking, Junpei decided as he started up yet another hill in the painfully green landscape, was for chumps. It took forever, there was nothing to do, no one to speak to, and there were only so many things you could think about before you started repeating yourself. It was boring and annoying and definitely for chumps.<p>

The worst thing was that he had been walking for almost four days now.

He sighed and slumped over as he reached the crest. There were a lot more digimon and villages around since the world had been reformed, and he'd caught a ride on a couple of wagons over the last few days, but he had spent most of his time just walking alone across empty land.

"I wish exercise here counted in real terms," he muttered, holding his sides as he slowly heaved himself upright. There was a village in the valley below, surrounded by farmland that reached from the very base of his hill. He heaved in a deep breath and started down toward it. "I'd be as fit as Takuya by now. And I'm taller and bigger than him – I'd be covered in muscles and all chiselled and handsome. Man, that'd be so cool… I bet Izumi would love it. And in these clothes, I'd be like those American movie heroes. She loves those."

The thought of himself as an athletic, handsome movie star kept him entertained as he wandered across the fields for the next half an hour, talking to himself to keep himself from going crazy. It was fun, imagining his movie-star self in a bunch of different costumes and fighting dozens of battles. But as he neared the farmhouse itself, he came back to reality with another sigh.

He poked at his own stomach, pushing in until he couldn't see his fingernail any more. "Not that it's gonna happen here. Data is data. I've never seen a fat digimon. Except the ones that are all fat. And then it's just because that's how they were programmed. I'm not even sure you can be bigger or stronger than you were originally programmed," he muttered, then looked around for a digimon to use as example. After a moment he frowned, turning in place. He couldn't see any digimon at all.

"Hello?" he called, staring across the fields. "Is anyone here?"

Now that he was actually looking, and not fantasising, he could see that the obviously well-tended fields had started to become overgrown. There were tools dropped in the middle of nowhere. And no digimon in sight.

He bit his lip and turned around again, more slowly this time. "Hello? Anyone?"

There was no answer but the wind, and he shivered, taking a step back toward the town. Maybe it was like a holy day and they were all in a church or something. Digimon had to have churches – Takuya had almost died in one, after all.

That thought made him stiffen again, and he shook himself as he broke into a quick trot. "Hello? Anyone here?" Still no answer; no city sounds; only his own running footsteps. "Hello? Someone please answer me! Is there someone here?"

The further into town he went, the more terrified he became. There were no digimon, but there were dozens of abandoned signs of life. Picnic tables covered in old food, sacks lying in the middle of the street, sharpened weapons where anyone could trip over them. Even a doll that he stopped to pick up and turn over in his hands. He didn't know why, but for some reason the doll hit him hardest, and he clutched it in both hands as he spun around the village square.

"What happened here…?"

"Haato," a stoic voice replied, and he cried out, tripping over his sneakers as he turned around again. A tall yellow fox stood on its hind legs on top of the village flag pole, its icy blue eyes visible even from the great height as it gazed down at him.

"Wh- who are…?" Junpei stuttered, and the digimon continued gazing at him for a moment, then leapt up to drop down in front of him, as if it had merely been a foot-height drop.

"I am Renamon. And you are not of this world."

He grit his teeth and scrambled upright, still gripping the doll as he hunched into a fighting stance. "What of it?"

It didn't move, just gazing at him silently, and he hesitated, taking the time to look at it better. Perhaps because it was standing so still, its arms crossed under its chest and every muscle taut, but even the purple arm-coverings that reached over its paws made the fox seem like a master ninja. Despite its eyes, it was strangely beautiful, its yellow fur flowing into white for its chest and paws and the tip of its tail. It was grace and power, and he swallowed as he was oddly reminded of Shutsumon.

"I am not here to harm you, though it would be easy and of great benefit to me," it said, and Junpei narrowed his eyes, deciding the voice marked it as female. Renamon tilted her head ever so slightly. "You are a human from the other world. Your data would make me much more powerful. I even suspect that you are one of the humans chosen by the Legendary Warriors. However, warrior or not, you are currently defenceless, meaning that I could easily defeat you and absorb your data."

He hesitated again, then slowly drew himself upright. "I'm sensing a 'but' here."

"_However_," she said, and though he couldn't see her mouth, he could hear a smile in her tone. "I am also a warrior, and one with honour. It would be a dishonour to us both for me to attack you when you cannot defend yourself."

"Uhh… thanks?" he asked, and her eyes narrowed in what he somehow knew was a smile. He gave her another quick once-over, then straightened properly and turned to look around the square again. "Where is everyone? I'm guessing they're not all hiding out on flag poles like you."

"I was observing you to see what you would do when confronted with such an image," she said, and tilted her head the other way when he looked at her over his shoulder. "Until a few days ago, this was a human-type village. Then Arogansu and Modesuti came."

"Who?"

"Two of the ten Haato – evil creatures that have caused silent havoc to this world for almost a decade," she said, and then turned on her toes to begin walking away.

With no one else to talk to, Junpei followed. "But I've been through a bunch of towns over the last few days. No one ever talked about anything called 'haato'."

"That is because most do not believe in them. They are a rumour – a story told to children to make them behave," she explained. "The outlandish and unbelievable tell of them time and again, but of course few believe. Why believe in something so terrifying, when one can have faith in Legendary Spirits?"

Junpei frowned, trotting to catch up and walk beside her. "But something like this… it's proof, isn't it?"

"No one escaped. No one saw it happen," she said. "No one but me. And renamon are almost as infamous as the haato for our deadliness. It would be easy to believe that I destroyed this village and blamed a fairytale."

"But you didn't."

"No," she agreed. "But knowledge and belief are different things. So I wait for someone to come. I wait for them to form their own conclusions. And then I speak."

They continued walking in silence for a few minutes, and Junpei had the feeling she was giving him time to appraise her again. After a while, they reached what looked like a doujou, and Renamon led the way inside.

"I lived in this village, training young digimon in the ways of honourable warfare. This was my home. I would ask you to stay, but I feel you would rather move on soon. I would also invite you to tea, but I doubt you trust me enough to accept my offerings," she said, and he stopped as she walked up the stairs to the house. She paused, looking at him over the ruff of her shoulder. "Am I wrong?"

He smiled, shaking his head. "Only a little. I'll trust you enough for the food. But this place is creepy, why would anyone want to stay here?"

"It is my home," she said, and turned away again. "They were my friends. I will wait for them to return."

"But they were destroyed, weren't they?"

"I will wait for them to return," she said, her voice calm but heavy. "The trailmon will bring them back to me. I will wait until then."

"Renamon…"

"Come. If you will accept my offerings, I shall make you tea," she said firmly, and then stepped forward to disappear into the house.

Junpei sighed and followed, absently wishing he were Izumi so he knew exactly what to say. Or if he were Kouji, he could give her some martial artists' saying that they could connect with. Even Kouichi would be able to offer some condolence. He took off his shoes and stepped up into the building, squinting as his eyes adjusted to the dimmer light.

It was a large hall, obviously built as the dining room for doujou gatherings. Now, however, it was mainly empty, with only a small table and several boxes surrounding a small cooking fire that Renamon was kneeling over. She was busy with the kettle, and he watched her movements as he walked over to sit beside the table. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but after what Kokuwamon had told him, he hadn't been taking any chances with any digimon.

But it seemed she had simply prepared tea, and when she turned around, she sat both cups in front of her. "It is no condolence, given that I may have simply built up a resistance to any poison I would give you, but as an attempted symbol of faith, I will drink either cup," she said, and he laughed.

"I'll trust you that much," he said, and ignored propriety to just reach over and grab one. "So how come you survived when the rest of the village didn't?"

"I am a warrior. I can hide when needs be," she said, and then lowered her eyes as she picked up the remaining cup to drink. "I can also evolve into a beast-type, which I do not doubt saved me."

He looked at her over his own cup, and she closed her eyes.

"Until they came here, I thought the haato were a legend. I told my students not to listen to such outlandish tales. I thought, and many agreed with me, that they were simply a story created by beast-type digimon that still believed in the old war between human- and beast-type digimon," she said quietly, and set down her cup in what Junpei guessed was a symbolic gesture. "Although they are not digimon, and appear to be human-shaped, they roam the digital world wreaking havoc amongst human-types. They destroy them utterly, leaving no survivors. Beast-types escape their wrath only with their lives, and only if they do not show emotion at their friends' deaths. I was spared because I had evolved when I sensed them coming, and was watching from the rooftop. Arogansu said I should let my students prove themselves to be strong warriors. He destroyed them easily, and I knew I could not defeat him, or his companion. I did not try, and they let me live."

"What did they want?" Junpei whispered, and she opened her eyes to look at him.

"I do not know. While destroying my students, Arogansu spoke of human weakness, though I did not understand. He said we were corrupted. His companion, Modesuti, destroyed my temple, and the city altar. She said we mocked her."

Junpei blinked in confusion, and Renamon paused, staring into her tea for a minute before looking up again. "I do not know your name, though I believe it to be Junpei," she said, and he nodded slowly. She inclined her head in a short bow. "Then I shall tell you truths, and you shall save us once again.

"He- hey, I didn't –"

"Please listen," she said firmly, and he grimaced. She took a quick sip of her tea, then set it down to give him her full attention. "Twenty years ago, you and the other Human Children returned to the human world, leaving us three digimon that would be the Great Angels, and ten spirits to protect us. Within five years, the Holy Court was reformed, though the three digimon were still far from their celestial forms. Protectors had come, and Bokomon and Neemon held court over the digital world, preparing for the day that the Great Angels would return."

"But they went missing," Junpei said. "I've heard that – no one's been able to contact them for years."

"Correct. We did not think much of it, at the time. The court was more of a formality, and the Great Angels would become figureheads, not true rulers. Although we eagerly awaited their return, we did not fall into chaos without them," she said, and tilted her head again. "We had faith that should anything occur, the Legendary spirits would appear and save us. They have done so several times in the past twenty years. The ocean has been calmed by Ranamon's touch, fires controlled by Agunimon's will, storms made bearable by Blitzmon and Fairymon's combined strength, Wolfmon and Lowemon brought peace to warring factions. Though we did not know where they went when not needed, we saw them when they came."

"Blitzmon and Fairymon really work together?" Junpei couldn't help asking, a blush spreading over his cheeks.

"Of course. They are the weather. They will always move in concert."

He grinned despite himself, then coughed and brought himself back to the matter at hand. "I'm guessing there's another 'but' coming up."

"Ten years ago, a fire began in the underground tunnels of Steel City. It raged out of control for weeks, destroying all the foundations until the city eventually collapsed," she said, and folded her hands behind her cup. "The inhabitants had prayed for Agunimon to save them, but he never came. Some even claim they saw Vrytramon feeding the flames."

"No way…"

"A few weeks later, a tribe of Gomamon were praying to Shutsumon to save them from a whirlpool that had begun outside their home. It only became worse. The same happened in many territories. It seemed the spirits had abandoned us." She paused, tilting her head the other way. "While some panicked, most of us believed the spirits were trying to tell us not to rely on them so much. Little happened for years, until the legends began."

"Legends about these haato things."

"Haato are… creatures," she said delicately. "Neither digimon nor human, they are made from many different things. Some, like Modesuti, appear completely human, while others look like garbage, or flames. They are all human-shaped, but have special powers. And they are all cruel and heartless. The legends tell of their names, and children fear them, as we use their legends to make them behave."

"What, like, 'eat your vegetables or the haato will eat you'?"

"Believe in yourself, else Serufuheetoredo will consume you," she corrected. "Mate with your intended, or Labu will rip your data from your core. Fight with honour in your heart, or Hiisutori will destroy you."

"Ah."

"The original legend was from the same gomamon that worship Shutsumon," she said. "It is said that they were praying to her altar, when Modesuti appeared. According to the legend, she destroyed the altar and many gomamon, demanding that they never mock her again. Other legends speak of entire human-type villages destroyed. No matter the legend, some things remain the same. There are ten, we know their names, and they kill all human-types that they meet."

"Who are they?"

"Arogansu despises those who refuse ask for help, while Modesuti destroys those who pray to the spirits. Labu is cruel in matters of the heart. Rejekushon is ruthless to people denied. Hiisutori claims to fight for the rights of the defeated, and Potensharu punishes those who keep waiting for the future. Torasuto corrupts even the purest digimon… Dependensu will never appear alone. Puraido is… almost like a leader. We speak of him, but few have seen him."

"That… wasn't actually what I meant," Junpei said, blinking fast. "I meant more… where'd they come from?"

"I offered you truths, but in that I can give you only rumours and fears," she said, and picked up her cup for another drink before continuing. "Some believe that they are enemies of the Legendary Warriors, brought from wherever the spirits now dwell. Having defeated our heroes, they now come to destroy all memory of them. Others believe they are creatures from the human world, come to destroy us for lusting after human artefacts for so many years."

"But you…?"

"I believe… I _fear_…" she said slowly, and hesitated again before lifting her eyes to his. "I fear that they are the Legendary Warriors, corrupted by the same darkness they once fought against. I fear that without their human children, the warriors have been invaded by the darkness so deeply that it has changed who they once were, more than it ever did to Lucemon and Cherubimon. I fear that they are responsible for the Angels' disappearance, and hold the Holy Court captive. And I fear that there is no one that can stop them."

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	10. Reunion

_**Rebooted – Chapter Nine**_

Reunion

**TRUFAX: **Pandamon is a heroic digimon that protects children. It, like Chakmon (Tomoki), squeaks when it walks. And yet, I still say Yuugi, when wearing his totally-not-Final-Fantasy-rip-off armour, is the most adorably hopeless hero in this crossover-verse.

* * *

><p>"This is the last stack for the day. I just closed up shop."<p>

Tomoki glanced at the swaying pile of dishes, then sighed and inclined his head to his boss. "Okay, Pandamon. I'll try not to take too long."

"Don't worry about that. I have to talk to you," he said, and Tomoki let his current dish slip into the water as he twisted to meet Pandamon's eternal glare.

It had taken him a while, that first day, but Tomoki had eventually decided he was better off hiding the fact he was human. It wasn't hard, really – he had stolen a pair of gloves from the market (he'd felt bad at first, until he remembered that he'd never seen a digimon wear gloves they hadn't been programmed with, and lost his guilt to confusion at the stall's very existence), and a bunch of old paint tins from behind a renovated store. Wearing the gloves and covering himself in orange paint, he had re-pitched his voice to a squeaky, barely comprehensible level, and no one had doubted he was a rare crossbreed-digimon known as 'Tomomon'.

He had only been walking around for a few hours, looking for a way to find Trailmon tickets, when he just happened to see a little blue creature stalking out of a restaurant, swearing black and blue about being fired. Tomoki watched him go, and then hurried in to offer his services to the owner. His boss, a panda-like digimon with a heroic red cape and a natural glare known—quite rightly, in Tomoki's opinion—as Pandamon, had clearly not bought his disguise for a second. But he'd openly said that as long as Tomoki didn't ask why he wasn't adventuring like other pandamon, he wouldn't get asked any questions either.

Today was his fourth day on the job, washing the stacks of dishes that Pandamon's busy restaurant stacked up, and while he did feel bad about not looking for his friends, he knew that news of their arrival should have spread across the digital world within hours. He figured that everyone else was probably lying low too, trying to find each other in their own way.

Besides, Pandamon had promised to buy him five Trailmon passes if he stayed until they found a new kitchen hand. That would get him and anyone else he met along the way to the Fire Terminal, and they could work things out from there.

He hesitated, then put down the plate and turned around to properly meet his gaze. "Is something wrong?"

The digimon just reached under its scarf and pulled out an envelope to hold up. "Five Trailmon Tickets. Once you're done here, you're free to go."

"You found someone else?" he asked, but Pandamon's eyes only narrowed a little further.

"Someone came into the store today. Someone unusual," he said. "We spoke for a little while, and she confirmed something for me."

Tomoki just watched silently, his head bowed as he waited for the point. It took another few moments, but eventually Pandamon lay the tickets down on a clean part of the bench and turned away.

"Ask me why I don't adventure like other pandamon."

He blinked, then looked off to the side and coughed. "Okay, um… why don't you adventure like other pandamon?"

"Twenty years ago, I lived on a floating island called ToyTown," he said, and Tomoki flinched, his head jerking up. He, Takuya and Kouji had gone to there once, and gotten in trouble with a bunch of ToyAgumon. There had been a pandamon there that Takuya said had saved him and Kouji…

"I thought I was the hero of the island. I did what was right and often saved the day. But after years of fighting the good fight, a darkness corrupted my fellow toy digimon and I couldn't save them. That was when human children appeared on my island," he said, and lifted a paw to look at it thoughtfully. "Three human children. The type of children I had been programmed to save: one was afraid of people, another was alone in a crowd of friends, and the third… the smallest… the older two argued like unhappy parents, with the third as a child in the middle. I had been programmed to save children like these. I was created to make such children happy."

Despite how sad Pandamon sounded, Tomoki couldn't help but smile at the memory. It had depressed him at the time, but he could remember the day so clearly. Kouji had reminded him of his big brother, while Takuya had been exactly what he wanted his brother to be. Even then, they had complemented each other. It was just that none of them had realised that yet.

"But these children… these lost, silly children that couldn't even save themselves… saved my entire island," Pandamon continued. "They did in a few hours what I hadn't managed to do in months."

Tomoki looked up, smile fading at the thought. "That doesn't mean you were a bad hero."

"Of course not," he agreed, and turned to look at him. "But it made me realise that the world doesn't need pandamon to save it. I, and others like me, though I have trouble convincing them of it, don't save islands and worlds… we save people. Individual people. And I couldn't do that on an island in the sky, hiding away from other people. So I came down here to do it."

He hesitated, glancing away. "I… we, I mean…"

"Again, I won't save this world from the things that do it harm," he said, pulling Tomoki's gaze back to his own. "But I have given shelter to one who will. And now I help him find his way back to his friends. You should go to Stove Tower."

"My friends are there?" he asked, but Pandamon just turned away. "Pandamon!"

"I find it so strange that the heroes of the digital world are exactly the type of children I was created to save," he said thoughtfully, pausing in the doorway. "All of them… they're so lost. They're all missing something, and it makes them sad…"

Tomoki blinked, his concern fading in his confusion. "We – I mean… they are?"

"The girl that came in here before, though… she has her knight. She just can't see him. You all have your saviours, if only you could see them." He fell silent for a moment, then hummed in his throat and started out the door again. "Perhaps you all will, after all this."

* * *

><p>Kouji's eyes flickered as he looked around the market. He and Izumi were leaning back in the shadows, but in their bright clothes, they didn't blend out of sight nearly as well as Kouichi and Pipismon did by simply staying out of the light.<p>

They were all munching on the bentou Izumi had brought back from her explorations, and waiting on the pandamon she'd said had asked to meet them. Since he was apparently responsible for their meal, Kouichi was more than happy to wait, but Kouji wasn't so trusting. He was only poking at the food, keeping his gaze fixed on the surrounding digimon.

Although he'd listened to dozens of conversations over the day, he hadn't heard anything about humans wandering the digital world, which had concerned him more than he cared to admit. News of their presence should have spread like wildfire, but all he'd heard so far was gossip even worse than the nonsense at school. He had, however, managed to trade the umbrella that lived at the bottom of his backpack for a walking staff and a purse full of digicoins at the pawn shop. He wasn't sure how he'd gotten away with saying his umbrella was unbelievably valuable as a product of the real world, but he knew they'd be able to eat for a good few days on the money, and he had a weapon to use for his Licht Zieber. The staff was lying by his feet, and he absently rolled it under foot as he watched the crowd. Being away from the others for so long was making him nervous.

"Human children are lost in the digital world again!" Pipismon cried, and they all looked up at it, then followed its gaze to where a small figure was pushing its way through the crowd. Kouji frowned as he noticed a familiar green snow-cap, and felt Kouichi stand up straight beside him.

"Weird looking digimon," Izumi said slowly. "Aren't they usually a bold colour with a white face, not the other way around?"

"It's very human-shaped, too," Kouichi murmured. "If not for the… in fact… I think that's Tomoki."

"Tomoki?" Kouji repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Since when is Tomoki orange?"

"It looks like Tomoki," Izumi said firmly. "Just… orange."

"Guys!" the figure cried, and they all smiled as they recognised the voice. He shoved his way past a gallantmon and into plain sight. "I knew Pandamon wasn't lying!"

"Tomoki!" Izumi cried, and she rushed forward to catch him in a hug. "It's so good to see you!"

"Thank goodness you guys found…" He trailed off, his eyes falling from her face to the body pressed against his own. "Wow… uh… Izumi…"

"Tomoki!" she cried, yanking away to pull the coat Kouichi had once again insisted she wear closed, but then laughed despite herself. "I know, it's terrible. How have you been? _Where_ have you been?"

"I've been working here the last few days, trying to get some Trailmon Tickets so I can start heading for the Fire Terminal. I figure Takuya's gotta be around there somewhere," he said, and pulled an envelope from his vest to show them. "The digimon I was working for, Pandamon? He was the one that helped Kouji and Takuya save me back in ToyTown all those years ago! He gave me five tickets!"

Kouji sighed in relief, and Kouichi grinned. "That's great, Tomoki. So why are you orange?"

He laughed. "This is my cover! I've been pretending to be a rare digimon from the ice mountains called 'Tomomon'. Cool, huh?"

"Did it work?" Kouji asked, and he grinned.

"Yup!"

"Digimon aren't that bright, are they?"

"Kouji!" Izumi admonished, but he just scowled and looked away. She shook her head in frustration. "Sorry, Tomoki. He's been grouchy all day. How have you been?"

"Good. Worried about you guys. What've you been doing?"

"Travelling," Kouichi said. "Fighting Cereberomon. Getting back digivices."

"What?"

He smiled and nudged Kouji, who just grunted at Izumi. She rolled her eyes and reached into her boot to show Tomoki the digivice. "It seems that if we –"

"Humans!"

They all flinched and looked around, their eyes widening at a gigantic digimon that was glaring down at them. It was several metres tall and looked like a white, humanoid lion wearing black pants. The rest of the market crowd had quickly backed away from him, but they were all staring at the four children in shock.

"Humans, humans! Human children are lost in the digital world again!" Pipismon chirped, and Kouichi clenched his eyes shut to keep from killing the stupid thing.

"Uh… hello there," Izumi stammered, staring up at the lion. "Yes, we're humans. What are you?"

"It does not matter who I am. Your data is invaluable!" it roared, and Kouji's eyes narrowed.

"So what?"

"Do you not fear me?"

"Not particularly," he said coldly, putting down his bentou and picking up his staff instead. "You look like an overgrown house cat that needs to be neutered."

"Kouji, you can't keep insulting digimon with such big teeth," Kouichi moaned, burying his face in one hand.

"I shall destroy you and absorb your data!" the lion announced. "Do you not have the brains to understand this?"

"Yes. I just don't think you can do it," he said, and stepped forward, using the staff to push Tomoki and Izumi back by Kouichi. "But you are welcome to try."

"Hey, hold on!" Tomoki cried, waving his hands to attract everyone's attention. "Come on, we don't really want to fight, do we? I mean, you don't really want to destroy us. We're just humans! Hardly any fight at all!"

"That," the lion said, "is the point. So much power in such a weak creature. It will not take much to destroy you."

"Not exactly honourable, are you?" Kouji asked, and the lion glared at him.

"You have a large mouth for one so puny."

"And if that's all you can say, you must have a puny brain for one so large," he retorted, bringing his staff up in both hands. "Now either walk away and leave us alone, or the two of us are going to fight."

"Three of us!" Izumi corrected, throwing off Kouichi's jacket and stepping up beside Kouji. "I'm not letting you boys have all the fun this time."

"Oh man," Kouichi groaned, covering both his and Tomoki's eyes.

"Two humans against me, the great Panjamon?" the lion cried, and then threw back his head and laughed. "You're right, puny human! This is dishonourable! All four of you against me would still stack the odds in my favour!"

"I'm so tempted to tell him who we really are," Izumi muttered, but Kouji gave her a look.

"We can't. We'd never get away from this crowd if they knew that."

"I know. Still doesn't make me want to tell him any less."

"Come, human boys," the lion called to Kouichi and Tomoki. "Come fight me!"

"We're more than a match for you," Kouji snapped. "Leave them alone."

"Then let us fight!" it said, and then roared as it lunged forward. Kouji nodded at Izumi, who immediately sprang onto her hands and began spinning.

"_Tornado Gamba_!" she shouted, and the thermal wind from her foot slammed into the digimon before it could begin to attack, knocking it several metres back before she righted herself and held out her hands. Although she hadn't really expected it to work, six small whirlwinds formed across her fingers, and she drew back her arms to fling them outward. "_Brezza Petalo_!"

The wind lashed into the lion, sliding it back into the crowd, and Kouji tightened his grip on the staff as he waited for Panjamon to recover. "One last chance to leave us alone."

"I underestimated your worth. Humans with power," it hissed, slowly climbing to its feet. "I will have you yet! _Ice Mete_ –!"

"Then I'll make you leave us alone!" he shouted, and the staff shined with the same burning white light as he charged forward, lifting it up over his head. "_Licht Ziegel_!"

It sliced through the digimon's chest easier than Kouji had thought possible, but he didn't stop, instinctively swinging the staff up and around to rest on his arm. "_Licht Kugel_!" he yelled, and somehow the staff's light erupted outwards in a single stream to blast right into the digimon's stomach. This time, the lion blacked out, its data ring springing up around it as Kouji stepped back and Izumi held out her digivice.

"You do not resemble the refreshing wind," she said quietly. "This digivice will purify your broken heart."

The data flew toward her and into the digivice, and the blacked out figure of the lion disintegrated until all that was left was the digiegg, which flew up and away. She closed her eyes and held the digivice close to her chest in apology, and Kouji glared around at the other digimon.

"Anyone else want to give it a try?" he snapped, and they all flinched and turned away, rushing off to whatever they had been doing before. He sighed and turned back to the others, only to find Tomoki gaping.

"How'd you guys do that?" he cried.

"We didn't give him much of a chance to fight back," Izumi said quietly, but Kouichi shook his head.

"You gave him plenty of chances to back off. That was enough."

"We've only been here a few days and all we've done is destroy every digimon we meet," she said, and then pushed her digivice back into her boot. "I don't like it."

"How'd you guys do that?" Tomoki repeated.

"We'll tell you on the way to the Fire Terminal," Kouji said. "In the meantime, Tomoki, meet Pipismon. You can keep each other entertained until we find a trailmon."

"Kouji, will you stop being such a jerk?" Kouichi asked. "What's up with you today?"

"Nothing. I just want to find Junpei and Takuya and fix it so we can go back home," he said, kneeling down to pick up his bentou. "We've been here too long."

"No matter when we get back, it'll probably just be a few seconds after we left," Kouichi pointed out. "What's the rush?"

"It's not leaving home that bothers me. It's how long we're here."

"Want to find Junpei and Takuya!" Pipismon said, and Kouji nodded.

"Exactly. It's not safe here. And that idiot always gets himself into trouble without me," he added under his breath, but Izumi still heard it and lowered her eyelids, unimpressed.

"From the way I remember it," she snapped, causing the other two to flinch, "you were the one that was always running off and needing rescue by 'that idiot'."

"Izumi," Kouichi said quietly, trying to warn her from bringing up sensitive points, but the damage had been done. Despite their friendly conversation from the morning, Kouji gave her one of his most heated glares and turned away, stalking back toward the station.

* * *

><p>If even half the digimon spent half as much time helping the pagumon as they did watching him, Takuya couldn't help but think the shrine would have been built and finished <em>weeks<em> ago.

Picking up another stone, he forced himself not to glare at the gajimon and elecmon standing around watching him. Several of them had been there the whole day, and none of them seemed at all inclined to help him. Not that the pagumon seemed to mind. Whenever he started to ask the spectators for help, the pagumon would start yelling about him earning the Trailmon Ticket. They seemed to think _they_ were doing _him_ a favour by slathering the stones he was piling up with concrete.

He shoved the stone into place with a groan and then fell back to sitting, panting hard as he stared up at the finished wall. It wasn't very big, only just as tall as him and twice the length, but it was what Pagumon wanted for their shrine, apparently. And it had taken him the entire day to build it alone, only stopping to mix the concrete that kept the stones together.

"This… is… ridiculous…" he panted, closing his eyes and falling onto his back. "How… were you… planning… on… building this… thing… alone?"

"Hmph! You're just being lazy!" the head Pagumon cried. "If we were your size, we would've built the whole thing by now!"

He opened one eye to glare at it, only to find a large candle standing over him. He blinked at it wearily, slowly coming to realise it was a candmon, and it held out a bowl. "Water. Drink."

"Thank you so much," he breathed, and pushed himself up onto his elbow before taking it to gulp down a mouthful.

"You work hard. We thank you for that."

"No problem," he said, and then drained the rest of the bowl and sat up. "What're you doing here, anyway? I didn't think candmon lived in cities."

"Not usually," it agreed, but didn't elaborate, and he shrugged, looking over the skyline to the sun.

"Hey, Pagumon, are we almost done for the day? The sun's setting."

"Another hour, lazy bones!" the head Pagumon said, bouncing off the wall to land on his head. "Then we call it quits."

"Fine, but could we maybe spend a bit of it getting these guys to he-" The rest of his question was cut off as Pagumon bounced against his head hard enough that his jaw bashed against the goggles around his neck.

"Some legendary warrior! Did you complain this much when you were younger?" it demanded. "I'll never understand how the world got saved with your as our great warrior! Tell the truth – Lucemon just got sick of your whining and killed himself, didn't he?"

"Alright, that's it, you little rabbit-head freak!" he snarled, snatching the pagumon by the ears and yanking it down to hang in front of his face. "I want to help you out here, I really do, but you're pissing me off just enough that the next wall I make may have you as the centre stone. You understand me?"

"Hmph! All talk, no action!" it retorted. "You spend so much time talking that I'd die of old age before you got around to putting me in the wall!"

"Die of this!" he snapped, and pelted it face-first into the newly finished wall. It bounced off and rolled back to his feet, groaning as its eyes spun in its skull, and Takuya scowled at it before turning back to his pile of stones. "Who's all talk and no action…?"

The candmon that had given him the water chuckled, but then turned and waved as it began to hop away. "Do your best, Takuya-sama."

"Thanks, Candmon," he said wearily, and started piling the stones again. He felt kinda guilty about beating up Pagumon, but after two days of abuse, enough was enough. Besides, he hadn't thrown him that hard.

The watching digimon began to filter away, and the wall slowly grew, until Takuya realised he was seeing more by firelight than daylight, and pulled away from the wall to look at the pagumon. "Are we done for the day yet?"

"Close enough," one said, while the leader grumbled and rubbed its nose with its ear.

"You deserve everything you get," it snarled, and Takuya grinned.

"Well then that explains why I'm heading for a good hot meal, and a nice warm bed. See you tomorrow, guys," he said, and some of the nicer ones called farewells as he ran for Agumon's house.

Unlike the night before, Agumon's door was open when he reached it, and he stopped, frowning as he heard voices. "I hope I'm not interrupting," he muttered, taking the last few steps as slowly as he could.

"But you said they weren't as susceptible!" Agumon was saying, its voice strained. Takuya immediately flattened himself against the wall, then winced at his own actions, not exactly certain why he'd done it. But he didn't move. "It's only supposed to work properly on fire-types, and it only ever helped me _go_ to sleep, so I used more, and –"

"It worked, didn't it?" another, female voice asked. He didn't know why, but Takuya found himself shivering at its tone. "You got everything you wanted."

"Yes, but –"

"Agumon, you wanted to find a safe way and I gave it to you," the voice said gently. "Are you saying you don't want it?"

"No! No, I've collected a bunch and it's fascinating and –"

"My, you are the inquisitive one to be reading already."

"It's amazing. I just know that when I've collected all of it, I'll know how to become the strongest digimon ever! Only… only I wonder if it really is safe? I mean, I know it's all going to end up the same eventually, but this morning, he sounded like he knew –"

"That's only to be expected. He is very powerful, you know. But the next time, he won't be so powerful. He won't notice."

Takuya narrowed his eyes, then slowly pushed off the wall and stepped forward. "I'm back!" he called, pushing the door all the way open so he could see inside. Agumon flinched and stared around at him, but Takuya barely noticed, his eyes instead drawn to the candmon standing beside it. "Hey, Agumon. Who's your friend?"

"Oh, um," Agumon began, but the candmon just hopped forward until Takuya could recognise it as the one who had brought him the water.

"Takuya-sama," it said, and he tilted his head back, suspicious. Instead of the cool female voice he'd heard, it sounded male and grated, just like it had earlier in the day. "I was visiting Agumon. Thought I would thank you again."

"It's no problem," he said slowly. "Uh… there wasn't anyone else in here, was there?"

Agumon stiffened up, tapping its claws together, but the Candmon smiled. "That's a Legendary Warrior's notice. My associate Witchmon was here. Sensed you coming. Flew out the window. Shy."

"Oh, yeah? She didn't have to do that," he said, but continued looking around the room. Something about this felt strange.

"Must go," Candmon said, hopping past Takuya for the door. "Thank you, Takuya-sama. Until next time, Agumon."

"Until next time," it agreed, but Takuya stayed silent, watching as the digimon disappeared into the night.

He frowned, then looked around at Agumon. "Are you okay? You sound kind of nervous."

"Fine! Are you hungry? I made meat apple stew!" it said brightly, and bustled into the kitchen, Takuya trailing behind. "I know you'll like it – it's an old family recipe."

"Your family cooked a lot, huh?" Takuya asked, sliding into his seat at the table. "You said that about the meal last night."

"Well, to tell you the truth, the only real secret part of the recipe is the herbs," it said, and pointed to a shaker on the table. "Otherwise it's just plain old ordinary meat apple stew! But it still tastes good."

"I'll bet. It smells great," he said, then folded his arms and hunched forward. "Hey, Agumon, was Witchmon really here?"

"What?" it asked, turning away to focus on the stew.

"I heard you guys talking when I came up," he said. "I heard a woman's voice, but not Candmon's. And you sounded kind of… weird."

"Oh, no, Witchmon was definitely here!" it said loudly. "She was being so funny, though! She's young – a real fan of yours."

"I guess," he murmured, and bit his lip in concern. "It's just… you'd tell me if something was wrong, right?"

"Of course, Takuya-sama!"

"It's just Takuya," he reminded it, and Agumon laughed as it doled out the stew. It took the herb shaker off the bench and turned away again, and Takuya leant his chin in his palm. "Hey, um, I've got a pretty weird question for you, completely off the point."

"Yes?" it asked, turning around and handing him his bowl. "Ask away!"

"Let's eat," he said, and then hesitated, stirring the herbs into the stew before taking a mouthful to taste. He grinned and swallowed, taking another spoonful. "Hey, this is great! Well done, Agumon!"

"Thank you! Let's eat," it echoed, but kept watching him as he ate. "What did you want to ask?"

"It's about the digital world," he said around mouthfuls. "You know, I learnt a lot about it the last time I was here, but I never actually found out where it came from."

"What do you mean?"

"Like, how did it come into existence? Has it always been here? Or was it created?" he asked. "Who created it? Did it come from the human world, or what?"

"Those are some big questions, Takuya," it said, pouring them both glasses of water. "Could you answer those questions about the human world?"

"Not, like, definitively," he said, waving his spoon before slurping up another mouthful. "But there are always possibilities, right? And you work in a library! If anyone knew, you would!"

It sighed, twirling its spoon through its stew as it watched him scarf his own. "Digimon don't like to ask questions without answers. That's the sort of thing only celestial digimon and fortune tellers like to ponder."

"So you don't know?"

"Why would I? I'm just an agumon, after all. I'm a fighter, not much of a thinker," it pointed out. "You're better off asking a magic-user, at the very least."

"What, like Witchmon?" he asked, and Agumon stiffened, then bowed his head.

"Yeah, like Witchmon. But I don't know how you'd find her."

"Too bad." He nestled his chin back in his hand, frowning when his spoon hit the bottom of his bowl. Something about Agumon's answers niggled in the back of his mind, and he looked at it absently, tapping his spoon against the last chunk of meat apple. "So you really don't know?"

"I don't know how to find Witchmon," it said, and he furrowed his brow.

"I mean, you don't know about how the digital world began?"

"I'm not the digimon you should ask about it," it said simply, and then bent its head over its bowl.

* * *

><p>It was the gentle shaking of the rail under his feet that made Junpei stop. He gazed down at it silently, then slowly turned and looked over his shoulder. A Bull Trailmon was charging toward him, brakes squealing as it slowed.<p>

His eyebrow twitched.

Junpei had stayed the night with Renamon, too shocked and frightened to go any further until his brain stopped buzzing. He wasn't like Takuya – when he heard bad news, it didn't inspire him to get off his butt and do something about it. He curled up in a corner and quietly panicked. But he had been woken up at the crack of dawn by Renamon standing over him, quietly telling him that he had to keep moving, or he would never move on.

They'd eaten breakfast and she'd walked him to the edge of town in silence, only stopping when they reached the station.

"I miss my friends, and I fear for the Legendary Warriors," Renamon said quietly, meeting his gaze with the blankest of her blank expressions. "But you are a sign of hope. I now believe things can be saved. I am motivated to do more than wait for my friends to return. I will clean up this village and prepare for them. I will help those who come through this area, and I shall spread word of what happened."

He smiled and nodded. "Just uh, keep me out of it, yeah?"

"Other digimon shall not hear of your arrival from me," she promised, and bowed low before tilting her head at him. "Out of the merest of curiosities, human, where are you bound, all alone as you are?"

"Huh? Oh, I thought I'd head to the Fire Terminal. I think one of my friends might be there," he said, folding his arms at the thought. "I thought I would've run into it by now… or even the Breeze Terminal, maybe. But it's been days, and – what's that look?"

She was blinking at him rapidly, but stopped at his question and looked around, as if checking for an audience. "Human… do you know where you are?"

"Not… exactly."

"This is Kyurio City. Two Trailmon days north of the Flame City," she said, and then leaned forward. "You came in through the south-western entrance."

He jerked, and she tilted her head a little further forward.

"You have been walking the wrong way."

She'd redirected him to the right exit without further comment, and though it didn't show on her face, Junpei could hear the laughter in her voice as she bid him farewell. He had blushed a bright red for several hours of walking, but his embarrassment had now moved into anger at himself. From what she'd said, he could guess that he'd been walking more north than east. He could have been at the Fire Terminal _days_ ago.

He turned around, keeping both feet planted on either side of the rail as he glared at the trailmon. It continued slowing, not saying a word as it screeched to a stop several metres away from him.

"You listen up, Trailmon!" he shouted, throwing out one arm to point at it. "I don't care what your route is and no I don't have a ticket, but you are damn well –!"

"Junpei?"

He blinked, his lecture dying in his throat. He hesitated, then slowly leaned over to see Tomoki leaning around the back of the Trailmon, staring at him. Junpei blinked again. "Tomoki…?"

"Junpei!" Izumi cried, leaping down from behind Tomoki's back and rushing over to hug him. "I can't believe we found you!"

"Hey!" Kouichi cried, waving hard as he leaned over Tomoki's shoulder, Kouji leaning around his. "We were worried about you!"

Izumi pulled back to grin at him. "I can't believe we ran into you like this! You're so lucky, Junpei!"

"L-" Junpei slowly slid to his knees with a weak, helpless laugh. "L- Lucky…"

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	11. Trust

_**Rebooted – Chapter Ten**_

Trust

**TRUFAX:** The flames of youth, trust and friendship burn in every. Single. Shounen. Anime. Ever. The comparison was not, however, built from this. It just made it a lot easier.

* * *

><p>Fuzzy.<p>

Takuya pulled back from the mirror, leaning back as far he could while still holding on to the sink. He definitely looked… fuzzier.

He tilted his head, then blinked and tilted it the other way. His reflection didn't change from the new angle, so he lifted his hand and slowly rotated his wrist. It didn't look fuzzy. Just blurry. He looked back up at the mirror, wondering if digimon wore glasses and if he needed them.

"Takuya-sama?"

He blinked slowly, and then turned around to face the door. Agumon didn't look fuzzy or blurry. It looked pixelated. Maybe he needed to whack Agumon on the head – that always smoothed out his television picture.

"Takuya-sama, are you alright?"

He had to blink again before he could think to answer. He had spent four days in Flame City now, building the shrine by day and sleeping all night. He wasn't sure if you could really get sick in the digital world—he'd caught a cold once, the first time they were here, but that was it—but he was pretty sure that if you could get sick, he was coming down with something. The second day he had woken up with a headache, the third had been spent in a disconcerting mind fog, and the entire day today, he'd been having trouble stringing words together. Thinking and moving were hard enough, but combining the two to talk was almost impossible.

"I think I'm sick," he managed, and then slowly turned back to the mirror. He didn't think Agumon knew, but he could see the digimon's reflection as well as his own. It was smiling at his back.

"That's too bad, Takuya-sama. Maybe you've been working too hard. Here, come have some dinner and then you can go to bed."

"Skip dinner," he said vaguely, and Agumon's reflection flinched, then rapidly shook its head.

"No, no, no, Takuya-sama, you have to eat. Come on."

"No," he murmured, but the little dinosaur hurried over and grabbed his arm before he could think of pulling away.

"I've made that stew you like! Come on, just one bowl!"

"I don't want –"

But his objections fell as he was forced to move. Talking and walking were far too complicated to do at the same time, and so he was silent as Agumon led him in to sit at the kitchen table. He blinked at the wooden table in front of him, and then slowly looked up to watch Agumon sprinkle some of its herbs over a bowl that it then pushed toward him.

"Eat up!"

"What about you?" he asked, and then looked around for Agumon's bowl. "Don't you want to eat?"

"You first," it said urgently, and he frowned.

"But you –"

"Eat, Takuya-sama."

He looked down at his bowl, and the herbs sprinkled over the stew. He knew his eyes were acting up, but he could swear the herbs looked more like little pills. He picked up his spoon, then let it drop heavily into the stew, pushing the pills under liquid where he couldn't see them anymore. They creeped him out.

He was still remembering how to eat and wondering why he felt a distinct need to throw the whole meal back in Agumon's face when there was a knock on the door, and he watched Agumon stand up again.

"I'll get that. You just eat up, Takuya-sama."

"Right," he said, but he set down his spoon as Agumon hurried out of the kitchen. He frowned at the stew, and then lifted his eyes to the open window, a solution coming to mind. He hefted himself up and picked up the bowl, then took a breath and a slow step forward.

"Hello, Agumon." The back of Takuya's mind registered the new voice as the female one he'd heard a few days ago. "How are things going?"

"You can't come in – he's here!"

"Oh, yes, but if you've been absorbing his data, he'll look right at me and not even think something's strange," she said. "A week and a half of data drain? I'd be amazed if he's still coherent enough to form a sentence."

The stew poured out easily, and Takuya urged his body to move faster as he heard the door shut. Why wasn't he working properly?

"Well, he has barely spoken all day. Is that normal?"

"It could be. But it could also mean he just doesn't feel like talking," she said, and Agumon laughed.

"Takuya-sama loves to talk. I doubt it's that."

"Then it means you've drained almost all his data. Which is, coincidentally, what I dropped by to speak to you about."

Takuya collapsed back in his seat and then stuck his spoon in his mouth to make it look like he had just finished. It was only just in time, because Agumon then stepped through the door, followed by an extremely blurry figure that could have been a tall woman with long hair, but he couldn't see well enough to tell.

"Oh, you finished your stew! Do you want more?" Agumon asked, and Takuya shook his head.

"Yes, you've done very well," the woman said, and Takuya felt a hand on his chin, tilting his head back until he was staring into what he could clearly see were large, dark blue eyes. "But you should know – one more extraction and he'll lose his physical form."

He furrowed his brow, something about that worrying him, but he couldn't really figure out what.

"But… but that means I'll have absorbed enough data to tap into it!" said Agumon. "I'll finally know what makes a legendary warrior!"

"Yes. And now we come to your part of the agreement," she said, and Takuya leaned away at the feel of a soft hand running through his hair. It felt just as creepy as Agumon's herbs. "When he loses his physical form, and you absorb all his data, something should remain."

"A digiegg."

"He's a human, he doesn't have a digitama," she snapped irritably, before the gentleness returned to her tone. "But whatever it is… you have to keep it and give it to me, remember? That was our deal."

"Of course. I know that."

"Agumon," Takuya murmured. "Who is this?"

"Uh –"

"My name is Torasuto," the woman said gently. "You and I have something in common, little digihuman. We both come from humans."

"I am human," Takuya murmured, and she smiled wider.

"Of course. And such a cute little human you used to be," she said, petting his hair.

"What are you talking about?"

"Torasuto-sama, I don't think we should say any more," Agumon said nervously. "Takuya-sama might not be as far gone as you think."

"Agumon," Takuya said, as firmly as he could manage. Though admittedly, that wasn't saying much. "What are you talking about? Whose data are you absorbing?"

"We're… we're…" it stammered. "I'm taking…"

"Don't sound so suspicious, little digihuman," Torasuto cried in mock-surprise. "Agumon's your friend, isn't he?"

"Of course he is," he mumbled, and turned his head out of her grip to look at Agumon. "I trust him."

The hand still in his hair clenched, and he flinched as it yanked a few strands, but Agumon just gave him a wavering smile. "Thank you, Takuya-sama. It's been my dream to meet and know you. And now I know you even more than I ever imagined possible."

"So whose data are you taking?"

It just stared back at him helplessly for a few seconds, then down at the empty bowl. "I… Aren't you tired, Takuya-sama? You should go to bed."

"Agumon. Tell me whose data you're taking."

Torasuto leaned down, her arms wrapping around Takuya's shoulders. "Yes, Agumon. Do tell the little digihuman."

"I can't," it said urgently. "He'll fight back."

Takuya's befuddled mind started making slow connections. "Please, Agumon. Tell me what's going on."

"Wouldn't you rather just go to sleep? Aren't you tired?" it asked, grabbing up the herb shaker. "Here, maybe you need some more stew."

"Maybe you didn't put enough of those herbs in," Torasuto suggested. "He doesn't seem very tired."

"The herbs," Takuya murmured, his eyes widening as he looked at Agumon, "were making me sleepy?" He remembered the first morning, when he'd woken up certain he'd slept more than a few hours. "You were drugging me?"

"I just didn't want you to struggle and hurt yourself," Agumon said, and Takuya blinked slowly, his head still having trouble connecting the herbs with his sleep.

"Hurt myself how?"

"Just take some more herbs now," Agumon said desperately, holding out the shaker. "Go to sleep. I promise it'll be over soon."

"I don't want herbs if they'll make me sleep," he said, staring at them. "I want to know what's going on."

Torasuto's arms lifted away, and she stepped back as Takuya slowly managed to force himself to his feet. "Agumon? What's going on?"

"Please, Takuya-sama, please don't make me do it the hard way. It's almost done now," it said, spreading its claws. "Just go to sleep and this can all be over!"

"No," he said, clenching his fists. He didn't know what was going on, and he wasn't sure why, but the back of his mind was panicking, and telling him he needed to get out of there. If only he could make the rest of him work as fast. "What's going on?"

"Agumon, you promised me you'd get me his core," Torasuto said dangerously.

"I know, and I will," it said, and Takuya looked between them, struggling to understand.

"What you're talking about… does that have anything to do with why I can't think?"

"I gave you a way to extract his data so you could get me that core," Torasuto snapped. "If you can't do this, I'll do it the hard way, and you'll never get the information you wanted."

"No! No, Torasuto-sama, I can do this!" it cried, then spun back to Takuya. "Please, just go to sleep."

"You… you made me like this," Takuya realised. "You made it so I can't think."

"Can't think, can't move, can't fight," Torasuto said, and he turned to stare at her instead. She smirked. "Agumon are curious digimon. Direct descendents of the original flame. Not too bright, but they like to know things. They may not understand, but they still like to investigate everything. Especially the things that interest them, like heroes."

"The stories about you are so great, Takuya-sama, and I loved to read them," Agumon cried. "But they didn't always make sense. Sometimes there were holes in the stories. And I realised that it's because you're human! You don't make sense! And the only way to figure you out was to read your data!"

Takuya stumbled back, struggling to make his mind work as fast as they were speaking. "You… my data. You've been taking my data?"

"Piece by tiny little piece," Torasuto murmured. "All the digimon in Flame City were in on it. The pagumon, the gajimon, the piyomon… they were all keeping you busy and distracted so you couldn't catch on until you were this far gone. And now you can't do anything about it."

"Why would they…?"

"Because Agumon's only in it for the information. The actual data… it doesn't want it. So once it's done reading it, it'll share it out among all the digimon that helped it."

He collapsed back against the door to Agumon's bedroom, clutching the doorhandle to keep himself upright as he put the rest of his energy into thinking. "But… how…?"

"Over the last week and a half, Agumon has been pulling data from you while you sleep the days away," she said brightly. "It had to take it slowly so its body wouldn't absorb it. So it's got all your data stored away where it can read it. And there's nothing you can do about it, because all you really have left is enough to stay solid and wander around."

"You… Agumon, you… lied…"

"But it's over now, Takuya-sama," Agumon said, and its claws began to glow as it stepped forward. "Just stay still while I extract the last code-set."

"No!" he cried, and his hand slipped on the doorknob, turning it around until it opened and he fell through. "I'm not going to let you!"

"You don't really have a choice," Torasuto pointed out. "You don't have the data to fight back."

He shook his head, trying to make his mind work enough to get him up so he could fight. But it was so hard. All he could think about was how Agumon had lied to him. It'd been taking his data while he slept. He'd trusted it, and now it was going to kill him. It –

A blue glow cut through his fractured thoughts, and he slowly blinked, lifting his head to see Agumon slowly advancing on him, and then further up to look around the room he was sitting in. He'd been in Agumon's bedroom only once – that first night that they argued about it. But it had changed since then. All around him were clear little boxes, filled with familiar blue light.

The back of his mind kept screaming for him to grab them, but he couldn't quite figure out why. The blue light was familiar. The blue light was… was…

"Data?" he murmured.

"Digicode release!" Agumon shouted, waving one paw of glowing claws.

Takuya cried out as a ring of the blue light burst out of his body, spinning around him for everyone to see. That was it. The boxes were full of all the data Agumon had taken from him. But what could he do about it?

"Please stay still, Takuya-sama. It won't hurt if you stay still," Agumon said gently, but Takuya just kept staring at the boxes.

He had to get that back. When he had that data, he could think again. He could move properly. He could fight! He clenched his eyes shut and concentrated on standing up.

"Takuya-sama, please don't fight it!" Agumon cried.

"Agumon, I'm getting concerned," Torasuto said coolly. "He doesn't seem particularly focussed on you."

"Please, I can scan the rest of the data," it said quickly, before turning around again to face Takuya, who was judging his chances of making it to the box before Agumon reached him. "I just need another moment. Takuya-sama, please stay still! Digicode scan!"

He had to move. Takuya lunged at the same time Agumon did, and he felt the claws rake his data, but he had moved too fast. His hands closed around the box and it immediately exploded, the light flowing back into him at the same time as the code around his middle slid into Agumon's claws. The exchange almost made his heart stop, but the swap kept him moving enough to lunge for another one.

"Agumon!" Torasuto snarled.

"No!" Takuya shouted, and the second box of data brought his thoughts back to full speed with a snap. He leapt out of the way of Agumon's claws and snatched another box, his arm sweeping the light into his chest. "Agumon, stop! You don't want to do this!"

"I need to know what makes a legendary warrior!" Agumon shouted, leaping over the bed to reach him. "I need to know so that I can become stronger!"

"That's not how you become strong! Come on, Agumon, didn't those stupid books teach you anything?" he cried, and then yelped as another stream of data brought feeling into fingers he hadn't noticed were numb. "You have to believe in yourself to be strong! You have to trust yourself and your own power!"

"Oh, for the love of…" Torasuto muttered, and Takuya spun around in time to see her disappear in a flash of light. He dodged another swipe of claws and snatched another box, clenching his teeth as Agumon barely missed him.

"Hold still, Takuya-sama!"

"You shouldn't give someone an honorific when you're trying to kill them!" he snarled, and then yelled as Agumon managed to snag another sliver of data from his digicode. "Dammit, Agumon, I thought you were my friend!"

"I'm sorry, Takuya-sama!" it cried, pausing the chase as Takuya managed to grab the last box. It looked at the data in its hands, then back up at him. "I do care about you, and I am your friend. But I need your data. And if it means I have to lose you to get what I want…"

"That's not a friend!" he shouted. His head was pounding, and his eyesight was still acting up, with even Agumon's movements trailing pixels, but he had gained enough data back to move and think at his regular pace. "I'm not a digimon! I won't become a digiegg and go to the Village of Beginnings! I won't get reborn! I'll just be gone!"

"I'm aware of that. But you have powerful data, Takuya-sama," it said, glancing down at the ball of light again. "You're not a digimon. You could never know how to tap that power. So it would be a waste to leave it to you."

"Friend or not, Agumon, I'm not going to let you kill me," he said coldly, and Agumon looked up at him from under its brows as the ring of digital code faded back into his body.

"You're just a human. And you're still weak because of the data I have here. I will beat you if you fight me," it said quietly. "It will hurt. I would rather you just let me take it."

"And I'd rather you had been honest and upfront about wanting to kill me, but we obviously can't always get what we want," he snapped. "And remember, I was a human when I was eleven and beat Lucemon into the dirt. Do you really want to test this?"

Agumon gazed at him silently for a moment, then shook its head. "I didn't want to do this," it said quietly, then quickly opened its mouth and shoved the data inside, swallowing the whole thing in one gulp.

"Agumon…"

"I'm sorry, Takuya-sama," it said quietly, and then lunged for his throat.

* * *

><p>Junpei groaned into his hands, shaking his head in self-disgust. "I can't believe I was walking the wrong way."<p>

Izumi bit back her laugh, patting his shoulder companionably. "It's okay, Junpei. We didn't know where we were going last time, and the world looks very different than it did back then," she pointed out. "And you were trying to do it backwards. You would've gotten it right if you'd started from Flame City or the Breeze Terminal."

"Or had any sense of direction," Kouji drawled, and Izumi clenched her eyes shut to keep from laughing. Kouichi whacked his arm, but there was no stopping Pipismon from taking it up as a chant.

"Walking the wrong way, trying to do it backwards! Would've gotten it right if you had any sense of direction!"

Junpei slumped further into his hands, and Tomoki slapped both hands over his mouth to keep from laughing. Kouichi stood up to cross the carriage and sit beside Junpei, giving Kouji a black look. "Look, Junpei, it's not that bad. So you were going north- instead of _south_-east. There was no way for you to know which direction the Fire Terminal was. And by going north, you met Renamon and found out some really valuable information!"

"Yeah! And you were going in one of the right directions! You were heading towards Tomoki, and since we were going that way too, you were coming toward us!" Izumi pointed out. "You showed up on our track! That never would've happened if you'd headed straight for the Fire Terminal!"

"It was fate!" Kouichi agreed. "Just think, if we'd gotten to Flame City but you hadn't gotten there yet, we would've gone off looking for you and never found you!"

"Yeah, you've saved us a heap of time," Kouji said flatly. "Now we just have to spend another week and a half looking for Takuya because he didn't hang around the Fire Terminal this long, if he was even there in the first place."

They all looked around at him worriedly, but he only glanced at them once before letting out a breath and standing up. "I'm going for a walk."

"Where?" Tomoki asked. "We're on a train."

"Just… a walk," he said irritably, waving them off as he headed toward the next carriage.

They watched him go, and Izumi sighed, pulling her legs up on the seat and wrapping her arms around them. "I'm worried about Takuya too. We were never apart so long in the digital world."

"Not to mention that he was a digimon last time we saw him, barely in control of himself," Junpei added, lacing his fingers. "What if it's gotten worse?"

"And what you told us about humans being targets in this world," Tomoki murmured. "He doesn't know that. Big Brother Takuya just gives everything he has to everyone he meets."

Kouichi bit his lip, then sighed and pushed himself to his feet, intent on finding his brother.

* * *

><p>Landing square on his palms and flipping off them to sprint through the maze of little buildings, Takuya absently realised that it was getting easier to move. It scared the crap out of him to think it, but that was actually a good thing, because along with faster reflexes, he had also gained more than two dozen opponents.<p>

A fireball exploded by his head and he instinctively dodged away, vaulting a pipeline and then diving into an open store.

"The human!"

He spun around to stare at the elecmon gaping back at him from behind the counter. He bared his teeth, but it just blinked back at him, and he let himself calm down a little.

"How do I get out of here?" he asked it quietly, and it raised one paw and pointed to a door behind it.

"There's a window back there."

"Thank you," he whispered, and then jumped the counter to dash out. But he had only just managed to clamber out the window before he heard its voice again.

"He went out the back window!"

"Isn't _anyone_ on my side?" he demanded, seeing fire even before a gigantic ball of magna flashed past his shoulder and he scrambled to run. But the anger didn't fade, and he could swear he felt his blood boiling as he sprinted around the buildings. He had lived and worked with these digimon for days – apparently more than a week, if his rapidly returning but still no less disturbing internal digital clock calendar was right. How could they turn on him like this? He trusted them! He would have done anything they asked! This was his _home_, dammit!

The pounding in his head was only getting worse the faster he ran and the more furious he became. It was familiar, and if he'd had time to think about it, he knew he would have told himself to calm down before he did a repeat of the play castle from the human world, but right now, he just didn't have time. If he stopped, the twenty-something digimon chasing him would catch him, and he would be dead. He wasn't intending on dying. He had stuff to do and save.

A rainbow tornado crashed into the ground by his feet and he automatically leapt out of the way, landing on his hands to roll. An electric bolt zapped at his boots, dancing over the rubber of his soles before he jumped back to his feet and kept running.

"Some hero to the people I am," he snarled as he skidded around a corner, only pausing to figure out where he was before taking off in a new direction. "'Ooh, he saved our world from complete destruction! Let's kill him and absorb his data – that'll be fitting thanks!'"

His fractured sight had long since developed a red tint around the edges, but now everything was coloured in fire. The torches and stoves around him flared as he sprinted past, but he barely noticed, too absorbed in his mental tirade against all the insane, backstabbing jerks that he had been stupid enough to trust.

"_Fireball_!"

He spun around, too furious to think straight as he watched the fire come toward him. It was too close, he couldn't dodge. He didn't bother, but held up his fist and bashed it away, his entire arm igniting in the process. But he couldn't feel it. He was too mad. Too betrayed. Too… too…

He was gonna kill them.

Everything exploded in fire, but he barely noticed. The pain in his head was a splitting knife, but he was too far gone to care. He couldn't see. He couldn't think.

He was just gonna kill them all.

It was a gajimon that reached him first, but he didn't see it – just threw out his hand at the first sign of movement. The fire lashed out so fast and hot that its fur didn't even burn before it exploded in a stream of data that flew towards him. A wizamon was next, and even though it was casting a spell, it too disappeared before the first word could finish.

They didn't have to give him anything. He wasn't expecting it. He wasn't even expecting thanks. He'd saved the world because he wanted to. It was his world. He was just as much a digimon as he was human. He didn't need or want respect or gratitude. Hell, he didn't care if they'd treated him like the garbage they always had because he was human.

But this… no, this was too far. He'd trusted them. He'd believed in them. He'd wanted to help them again. He'd wanted to do anything he could. He thought they had a deal! He was building that damn shrine all on his own for one lousy trailmon ticket, that was all he wanted! He would have slept in the street if he had to – he just needed the pass to find his friends! That was their _deal_!

And Agumon… Agumon… He'd… and Takuya had thought… But really, Agumon had…

"_You freaking liar_!" he screamed, throwing out both hands to build the fire to a blazing roar. Several digieggs flew up out of the flames, and there was a constant stream of code lashing out toward him, sinking into his outstretched hands.

He hated them all.

He'd kill them all.

* * *

><p>Even though it had been almost two hours since he'd found Kouji sitting on the platform of the last carriage, Kouichi hadn't managed to get his brother to talk yet beyond grunts and unintelligible mumbles.<p>

That was fine, of course, because Kouichi had been around Kouji long enough to recognise some of his expressions. And as difficult as he was to read when it came to Takuya, it wasn't hard to guess that the closed, angry look on his face meant he was worried sick. He never talked to anyone but Takuya when he was scared, and even then it was usually only an argument.

But Kouichi was looking out over the skyline, and so he was the first to notice the red glow over the dark treetops. He smiled, nudging his brother for attention. "We're almost there."

"Huh?"

"I can see the glow from Flame City," he said, pointing to it. "Nice, huh?"

Kouji frowned at it for a moment, then slowly stood up. "That's weird… Bull said we'd be travelling until morning. I wouldn't have thought we'd be able to see its lights yet."

"It is Flame City," Kouichi pointed out. "It's like a normal city back home – full of lights that reflect on the sky."

He nodded, but still narrowed his eyes as he leaned over the railing for a better look. Something didn't seem right.

* * *

><p>His knees hit the ground hard, and he continued forward onto all fours, panting smoke and steam from his lungs as much as air. The fire had faded, but all the buildings around him were still burning, and he could sense, hear and smell hundreds of digimon running around him as they evacuated the city.<p>

But none of them were attacking him.

He opened his once-again clear eyes to stare at his hands, noting almost absently that they were small and dark again, covered in handless gauntlets. He could feel his tail flickering in the heat of the flames behind him. He closed his eyes again and let his body go limp, dropping to the ground in a crumpled heap.

"What happened?" he heard a squeaky voice ask.

"Those insane idiots tried to attack the human!" another replied. "They knew he was the Legendary Warrior of Flame and they still tried!"

"If they're still alive, _I'm_ gonna delete them! They've destroyed our city!"

He snorted despite himself, but didn't move. He wasn't going to move. He was in pain. He was still angry. And he could feel the guilt starting to rack up.

"Oh, man…" he groaned, clenching his eyes tighter. "I killed them…"

So many digimon. They had attacked him, yes, but he hadn't just beaten them up and then purified them like he used to. He had killed them. He could feel the power of their data flowing through his body and making his nerves tingle.

Worse – he had _wanted_ to kill them. The urge was still there: the anger and betrayal was hurting him almost as much as his headache. But they were all gone now. He'd killed them all.

Even Agumon. The poor little dinosaur had come charging at him, fireballs blazing, and one by one, Takuya had just knocked them aside, before grabbing Agumon by the neck and throwing it into a furnace.

His eyes opened a crack, and he pulled in a ragged breath through a painful smile. "Oh god… I killed it. I killed it without even blinking. I'm a murderer…"

"No. You're pathetic."

He opened his eyes wider, rolling them around to see a candmon standing over him. He stared at it for a moment, then took another shuddering breath and pushed himself upright. Closer inspection showed it to be the same candmon that had visited Agumon before; the one that had given him water at the shrine site. He licked his lips, unsure of how to react as it stared down at him.

"You have been in this world before. It may have changed. But twenty years ago, digimon looked down on humans as lesser beings," it pointed out, and Takuya flinched back as it began to glow too brightly see. It continued to speak as its shape morphed under the light. "You have faith in digimon when you know they may hate you."

He blinked rapidly, tilting his head back as the figure kept growing, its voice smoothing and rising to a female pitch.

"You know they might hate you, and there's a high possibility that they'll try and kill you. Yet you have so much faith in them that you completely relax. You let your guard down so much that they could not only drug you, but they nearly deleted you," it said, and the light slowly faded to show a tall, beautiful woman with long, aqua-marine hair. She was wearing silky robes of pure white, and carrying a long silver sword. She stared down at him, nonplussed. "And now, even after they all actively tried to kill you, and you _defended_ yourself by killing them, your first thought is not 'thank goodness I'm okay', it's 'oh no I'm a murderer'. What is wrong with you?"

He stared at her for a long moment, then grit his teeth and shoved himself to his feet. "You're that woman from before! Torasuto!"

"Well done," she drawled, and bent over to look him in the eye. "That doesn't answer my question."

"Who the hell are you?" he demanded, his fists bursting into flame. "What do you want from me?"

"As I explained when you were all dataless and hopeless, I want your core," she said, poking a carefully manicured finger into his chest. "The problem is that, in all honesty, you're a lot stronger than I am. And, because Agumon was stupid enough to leave all that data just lying around, my original plan to get at it is ruined. So I'd rather we talked."

"Why do you want my core?" he snapped, and she sighed.

"Does it matter? I want it. You won't give it to me. We are at an impasse."

He shoved one flaming fist in her face, and she leaned back with a grimace, raising her sword to push the fist back. "That's not polite."

"Why do you want my core?" he growled.

"The question you should be asking is how you turned all cute and Flamon-ey," she said, taking a step backward but keeping her sword raised defensively. "You just set an entire town on fire. Doesn't that bother you a little?"

"You know it does," he whispered, struggling to keep his voice even. "But I can't bring back the digimon I hurt. I can't stop the fire until I calm down. And I'm not calm. You talking might calm me down."

"No, it won't. Because I'm not what you're worried about," she said. "You think you've done something unforgiveable."

"Shut up!" he shouted, and threw another punch, but she deflected it with the flat of her blade.

"You won't be able to face your friends having done this."

"They'll understand!"

"You are so… frustrating, digihuman!" she said, staring at him. "You don't believe that. If this were anyone else, you would believe that they had no other choice, or that they lost control. But _you_ can't tell your _friends_."

"I trust them! They trust me!"

"That word!" she hissed. "It's disgusting. They don't trust you. You obviously don't trust them."

"I do so!" he shouted, but his punch was once again pushed to the side by her blade.

"If you 'trusted' them, you wouldn't be so scared about them finding out about this. You would know for absolute sure that they would accept you anyway." She narrowed her eyes, a nasty smile curving over her lips. "But this rings of bad memories, doesn't it? This isn't the first time you've lost control like this."

He spun around, his foot lashing out to kick her, but she caught it on the flat of her blade, still smirking.

"Vrytramon almost killed them all. They'll remember that. You don't _trust_ them enough to believe that they won't. You think they'll make the connection. You aren't _trust_worthy. You'll kill them all on accident one day."

"Shut up!" he yelled, but she just leapt backward, out of the way of his flames. He stared at her, shaking, but she just smiled as her body began to glow again, this time broadening across the shoulders and thinning at the hips. The sword in her hand lengthened and narrowed, and Takuya stumbled back as he recognised the outline.

"Pretty big pattern here, Flamon," Wolfmon—_Kouji_—snarled, bringing his light sabre down in front of him. "You turn into a digimon, suddenly everything's on fire. People are getting hurt. What's this, the third time?"

"You're not him," he snapped. "Don't do that!"

"You can't hide from the truth!" the not-Wolfmon shouted, and then ran forward, bringing the sabre up over his head. "You knew this was coming!"

Takuya leapt out of the way and the sabre sparked as it hit the concrete, before Wolfmon's body began to glow again. It shrank and rounded, until Takuya was staring down the barrel of Chakmon's snow gun. Tomoki…

"You always told me that true strength didn't come from beating people up! But the truth is you're just a lying bully!" he shouted. "I won't forgive any bullying! I'll make you pay!"

"No!" he cried, and flipped up and out of the way as the icy bullets pounded the place he'd been. "Stop it! You're not them!"

Chakmon slowly morphed up into Fairymon, who stood with her hand on one hip as she frowned at him. "Agni is supposed to be the god of fire. He controls it by his will. You can't control a thing."

"I'm not a god, I don't think I'm a god," he growled. "Don't do this, Torasuto, you're making me a lot less merciful!"

"Ohh, he's a _merciful_ god," Fairymon crowed, and her wings fluttered to lift her off the ground so she could float toward him. "But you're not Agnimon, are you? You're A_gu_nimon. A false god. A liar. A fraud. And you're going to kill us all!"

"Don't make me hurt my friends' faces," he said, backing up as she began to glow.

"I always knew you were a liar!" Blitzmon shouted, pointing at him. "I always said you were out of control! I don't care how powerful you are, it just makes you more dangerous!"

"Stop it!"

"Flamon, I know what it's like to not be able to control yourself," Duskmon—Kouichi—said, his red eyes as piercing as ever as they stared down at him. "And I know better than anyone that sometimes things need to be stopped, not saved."

"Please…!"

"I notice," Torasuto said, swinging her sword around to rest on her shoulder as she switched back to her own form, "that you never said 'they wouldn't say that'."

He shook his head, and then spun on his heel and ran for it. He didn't care where he was going, but he had to get away from her. She was messing with his head and it had been screwed with enough tonight!

He made it almost five minutes before Kouji's body stepped out in front of him again, older but wearing the same blue and yellow clothes from his first time in the digital world. Takuya backed away, shaking his head as he tried not to beg.

"Stop it. Don't be him."

"Takuya doesn't have a whole heap of control," he said quietly, "but he has more than this. Most people don't realise, but he's got a tight grip on his emotions. He only ever lets people see the smile and the anger. And it's always controlled. He wouldn't lose himself like this."

"What are you doing?" he whispered, and the false Kouji held up Torasuto's blade.

"I know you're not Takuya. You're the beast that's been taking him over the last few years," he said, and swung the blade around in challenge. "I want my friend. I'll do anything I have to to get him back. And if it means killing you to purify his spirit… then that's fine with me!"

"Kouji, no!" he shouted, and only just managed to fall back enough to escape the blade by an inch. But it didn't hit the ground, instead twirling up and around to take a sidelong swipe at his head. He dove in the other direction and then leapt straight up to clamber onto a burning roof. "Dammit, Torasuto, don't make me fight my friends!"

"You can't run away from me!" the false Kouji shouted, and he grabbed a piece of burnt metal from the ground and flung it at Takuya like a frisbee. He barely dodged it, but lost his footing in the process and came crashing down on the other side. He'd barely impacted when not-Kouji ran up beside him, sword at the ready. "Give up, digimon!"

"Don't!" he shouted, flipping out of the way again. "You want to fight, do it with your own face!"

"You're the one who's hiding behind someone else's face!" he yelled, blade flashing as he ran after him.

"Kouji wouldn't do this!" Takuya cried, bouncing off a building to leap over Kouji's head. "Is that what you want to hear? I don't think Kouji would do this!"

The swipe almost took off his foot. "Liar!"

"He wouldn't! Even when I screwed up so badly that I could've killed everyone, he forgave me!" he shouted, and then let his hands burst into a ball of compacted fire to catch a direct shot for his neck. "No matter how dumb my plans are! No matter how crazy I act! No matter who I hurt, he always forgives me!"

"Who said I forgave?" he demanded. "Did I ever say that?"

"He doesn't have to!"

"Oh, you 'trust' me to forgive you, do you?" he sneered. "You 'trust' that I'll 'trust' you to not make the same mistake again?"

"Yes!"

"Oh, you make me sick with your naive prattle!" he shouted, and lashed out with the sword so fast that it finally caught Takuya's shoulder and threw him into a wall. He followed it with a strange blast of pressure that forced Takuya right through the brick. "You put so much faith in everybody, it'll be the death of you! In fact, I'll make sure of it! I'll kill you for your stupidity!"

He swung the sword down, and Takuya didn't have time to move. It slashed a long slice from his front, and he screamed in pain, before another blast of pressure threw him from the ground and into the wall behind him. The sword lanced across his front again, cutting off his breathing for a moment before not-Kouji stepped back, letting him crumple to the floor.

"Pathetic. You could be so strong. So powerful. You have human strength and digital power! But you destroy yourself with such human weakness as 'trust'. Disgusting!"

"You're wrong," Takuya grunted, and not-Kouji glared as he slowly pushed himself to all fours, his whole body shuddering with the effort. "It's not a weakness."

"It's pointless," he spat back. "You trust and trust and trust more, but in the end, you'll just be betrayed."

"No… my friends would never –"

The sword lashed out again, throwing him back into the wall. He coughed, then gasped down a breath and kept glaring.

"My friends wouldn't do this. Kouji wouldn't do this."

"You're so stupid," he hissed, tightening his grip on the sword. "He _will_ do this. He was going to back in the human world!"

Takuya just glared at him silently, drawing on the data he'd stolen from the digimon and the power of the flames around him.

"He cares about you, you stupid little digihuman!" not-Kouji snarled. "He saw you losing control of yourself and he blamed the digimon in you. He doesn't want to lose you. He'll do whatever it takes to keep you."

"That's right," Takuya croaked. "He's my friend. He wouldn't hurt me."

"Wrong!" he shouted. "He's your friend, so he _will_ hurt you! He'll see what's happened here. He'll see you, panicked and hurt and a digimon, and he will assume the worst. He'll think you've turned completely. He'll think you've been taken over by the uncontrollable Flamon. And he will try to purify you and release you from your hellish prison!"

"You're the one that's wrong," he said through clenched teeth. "Kouji won't do that."

"Oh, does the little digihuman trust his friend that much?"

"Yeah," he grunted. "I do."

"Fool. He's going to see all this murder, and he'll have to kill you to save you from it."

"So I'm doomed, then," he said darkly, and not-Kouji nodded. He narrowed his eyes, and let his lips curl up into a smirk as he looked up at the mimic of his friend. "Then I guess one more murder won't hurt."

"What?"

"New trick I just learned tonight, as a murdering digihuman," he said, and then threw both his hands out, fire exploding around them both in a wave. "_Broken Roar_!"

He got one last glimpse of not-Kouji's shocked expression before it was wiped out and replaced by Torasuto's murderous glare, but he kept the attack going until it too shattered into shining data. Takuya let his hands drop, closing his eyes as the data flowed into his broken form.

"I win," he whispered, forcing a grin onto his face as if that would stop the tears that fell.

* * *

><p>There were digimon moving around the smouldering station as the group stepped off the trailmon. None of them seemed injured, but they were all covered in soot and ash, and most were carting ruined belongings.<p>

"The haato must have been here," Junpei said, but Tomoki shook his head.

"That's Wizamon," he pointed out. "He's a human-type. Renamon said Haato don't leave human-types alive."

"Then what happened?" wondered Kouichi, before they all flinched at a sudden yell.

"Humans!" an elecmon shouted. "More humans!"

"More… Takuya _was_ here," Izumi said quietly, and Kouji stepped forward as the entire crowd of digimon stopped moving and started buzzing.

"What happened here?"

"That stupid Agumon and his bunch of crazies!" a pagumon shouted from a rafter. "A bunch of my stupider cousins, too! That's what happened!"

"What do you mean?" Kouichi asked.

"They tried to delete one of you!" the Pagumon said. "A Legendary Warrior, no less. Almost managed it, too."

They all froze, staring up at it blankly. Eventually Kouji managed to ask again, "What happened?"

"That dumb Agumon screwed up and let the human find out!" it snapped. "But by that point, it had gotten so far that half the city was in on it! Human didn't have a chance."

"It tapped into its power as a legendary warrior," Elecmon said. "That's what caused all this damage – all that power, y'know?"

"But we haven't seen it since the city caught fire," Pagumon continued. "It's probably dead. Not even a Legendary Warrior has much chance against that many digimon fighting together."

"Wonder who got the data…?"

"Where did you last see him?" Kouji demanded. "Where was he?"

"The human? My brother swears it went into his store last night when it was running away," Elecmon said thoughtfully, more preoccupied with its own question. "That's on the main road. The corner of Ember Street. That general direction."

Kouji immediately dashed away, and only Junpei waited long enough to say a thank you before sprinting after him. It didn't take them long to find Ember Street – it was living up to its name with almost no building left fully intact.

"The damage gets worse over there," Tomoki said, pointing to the next street over, where there were still some burning buildings surrounding a huge black mark. They hurried over, looking up and down the street for some sign of their friend.

"What if they're right?" Izumi whispered, her hand in her mouth as she stared around. "What if he really is –"

"Not even a legendary warrior has a chance –" Pipismon began, but Junpei reached up and grabbed it out of the sky, smothering its mouth with both hands.

"Shut up!"

"He's alive here somewhere!" Kouji snapped. "Split up. Check every building. Ask everyone you meet. Go!"

"Kouji…" Kouichi murmured, hurrying after him as Kouji took off down the street. "Kouji, slow down. I'm sure he's fine."

"I can't believe this," he hissed.

"You couldn't have gotten here any faster," he said, but Kouji didn't even acknowledge it, just quickened his pace as if to lose him. Kouichi rolled his eyes but followed silently, not making any comment on the crumbling buildings or the extent of devastation. But he was inwardly marvelling at the fight Takuya must have put up.

It wasn't until Kouji stepped on a piece of twisted, broken metal that he stopped moving. He paused, looking down at it, then slowly lifted his head to look at the building beside him. One of the walls had been knocked in, and there were scorch marks around the edges of the hole.

He hesitated, then slowly stepped up to the wall, his hand tracing the soot before he ducked inside, Kouichi following a step behind. Despite the daylight, it was dark inside. All the walls and floor were caked in ash, and crumbling bricks lay everywhere. The worst of the devastation was on the wall opposite the hole, where all the furniture that had once filled the room was crumpled and melted into a disgusting pile of warped, unrecognisable material. And lying in front of it…

"Flamon…" Kouichi breathed, rushing past Kouji to pull him out of the wreck. The digimon had seen better days, and although there was no blood in the digital world, the wounds all over his body were clearly severe. Kouichi quickly leaned down to listen to his breathing and check his pulse, then sighed in relief. "I think he's asleep."

Kouji shook his head in frustration and moved to kneel on Takuya's other side, resting his staff across his knees. "Idiot."

"Hey… hey, Flamon, wake up," Kouichi whispered, shaking his shoulder gently. "Flamon!"

His eyes fluttered, and Kouji leaned forward the better to see how alert he was. For a second, the green eyes were blank, before they focussed on Kouji's face and snapped open. "_Get away from me_!" Takuya screeched, lashing out with all his limbs until Kouichi let him go and he leapt away from them. He landed on all fours with his teeth bared, flames springing up around him. "I'll kill you as many times as it takes, just stop doing it!"

"Takuya…?" Kouji asked blankly, and Kouichi took a nervous step forward, hand outstretched.

"Flamon, calm down. We're not going to hurt you."

"What kind of –" Takuya trailed off, his eyes flicking between them. "Two? How are you doing that?"

"Don't you remember us?" Kouichi asked. "It's me. Kouichi. Kouji's elder twin brother. Remember?"

"I know who you're pretending to be, but you're not them," he snarled, but his eyes were uncertain as he looked between them. "You didn't do this before. There was only ever one of you."

They exchanged glances, Kouichi shrugging. "Maybe one of the digimon could change shape?"

"Maybe… Takuya, come on. It's us," Kouji said, frowning at him. "Ask us anything."

"I'm not falling for that. You know everything I do," he said lowly, and Kouji sighed, crouching down to be on his level.

"Who do you think we are?"

He hesitated, then slowly pushed himself back until he could stand, swaying slightly but still upright as the flames died around him. His eyes trailed over their faces and hair, then back down to their clothes.

"Before you say anything, I know I look like I belong in a marching band – shut up," Kouji said shortly. "I woke up like this."

For a moment, he just stared at them blankly, before his shoulders and tail sagged and he completely lost his precarious balance, dropping down to one knee and having to catch himself with both hands. He closed his eyes shut, one of his broken smiles spreading across his lips. "I really won this time."

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	12. Nightmare Memories

_**Rebooted – Chapter Eleven**_

Nightmare Memories

_Sorry about the delay this week - ffdn freaked out last night..._

**TRUFAX:** I am aware that Yuugi's infamous bad feelings are a purely filler-episode construction. Yami's 'name' is a construction from Japanese fandom and was put into the English version only to be retconned later. In the same way, Takuya's spirit-sense was featured in a grand total of one episode (maybe two if you're being generous) and mostly comes from a random-fact on Agunimon's datasheet. I enjoy trivia.

* * *

><p>The silence was unnatural.<p>

Although he tolerated them while he was awake, Yami couldn't stand the sounds of the city when he was trying to sleep. All it took was a flick of his hand and the entire house was enveloped in silence, so he had taken to doing so every night.

Yuugi sighed, slumping down into his arms. He would never tell Yami, but he didn't like the silence. He was a city boy, born and bred, and the quiet rumble of the city was somehow comforting; a distraction.

But all he had now were his thoughts. And they weren't getting him anywhere.

"It's the middle of the night," a hoarse voice whispered, and he shifted his head just enough to smile at Yami as he staggered into the kitchen. "I've spent the whole day fighting homicidal Duel Monsters. Why are you awake?"

"I woke up," he said simply, and Yami frowned as he sank into the chair opposite.

"Why?"

"I was having a nightmare. Or a memory. One or the other."

"Or both," he pointed out, and Yuugi grimaced in concession. They gazed at each other silently for a moment, before Yami stretched his arms up over his head, grunting with the effort. "Tell me."

"I was dreaming about Noah."

Yami's arms dropped back to the table. In all the years they had been together, they had faced a lot of enemies. Noah had been one the first people they'd fought that hadn't been after them specifically – he was the dead son of Seto Kaiba's adoptive father; a spirit living in a virtual world. They had been drawn into the conflict when Noah tried to destroy Kaiba and take over his body to return to the real world. They had all been pulled into the virtual world, and only managed to escape thanks to Noah himself. Yami still wasn't sure if they'd won that fight or not.

"I can't say I'm surprised you're thinking about him," he said, but still sat back in the chair, resigned to the conversation. "All this nonsense about digital worlds coming from Kaiba Corporation systems… the two have to be connected."

"Mm…"

Yami hesitated, eyeing him warily for a second. Yuugi was almost acting like he had one of his infamous 'bad feelings'. "What part of it were you dreaming about specifically?"

"Just… Noah," he said quietly. "I know he was a bad guy, and he's long dead and destroyed, but… I just can't help but feel bad for him."

"Why? He was psychotic."

"Exactly," he said. "He was completely insane."

Yami lifted an eyebrow. "And this makes you feel sorry for him?"

"I just can't imagine what he must have gone through. He wasn't even human," he murmured, and then shifted up onto his elbows to meet Yami's gaze. "He was a computer… but he had this overwhelming urge to please his father. Computers don't want to please – they don't _want_ anything. But Noah did. He had human thoughts and needs and desires… but he was a computer. So he couldn't reach them. He couldn't be human because he was a computer, but he couldn't be a computer, because he was human."

Yami stared at him silently for a moment, and then reached out to take Yuugi's hands in both of his own. He squeezed them tightly, furrowing his brow in concern. "He was put out of his misery years ago, aibou. You can't keep worrying about things that no longer matter."

"I know, but…"

"What?"

"It's just… With those kids and this digital world and…" He yelped as Yami stood up and dragged him to his feet, clearly intent on going back to bed. While he didn't resist, his smile faded when Yami turned away. "I just keep thinking, y'know?"

* * *

><p>It took until they were all the way out of Flame City and into (as far as they knew) unnamed woodland before Takuya relaxed enough to let them stop walking. He didn't let them patch him up though – he just wandered off into the trees toward the sound of running water, and when they followed him, it was to see him disappear behind a large rock where he became very violently sick. When he came back out, he didn't even seem to notice them, just walked over to the river and dove straight in. He didn't come up again for almost a minute, and they all exchanged worried glances.<p>

"What do you think happened to him?" Junpei whispered, setting down the pack of supplies they had stolen from Agumon's home. "I can't imagine how bad the fight must've been."

"And from what the other digimon were saying, he was human to start with," Tomoki said quietly. "But you guys used your powers without turning into digimon. What could've been different?"

"He was already a digimon when this thing started," Izumi pointed out. "Or maybe we just got lucky. Who knows?"

A shining blue light drew their attention, and they looked around to see Takuya surrounded by digital code for a second, before he reappeared, fully human but no less wounded. He waded over the edge of the river and peeled off his massive red jacket and the strange fingered shirt and goggles, then hopped in place for a second, apparently removing his boots, because they followed the clothes. He then collapsed back in the water with a splash and floated back to the middle of the river.

"Someone should talk to him," said Kouichi. "Find out what happened."

They all exchanged nervous glances, then looked at Izumi. She shook her head vehemently. "No way."

"Come on, Izumi, you're a girl! Girls know this kinda stuff!" Junpei hissed, but she just glared right back.

"You're the psychology expert! You talk to him!"

"No way! What about Kouji? You're his best friend!"

"No," he said firmly, and then looked at Kouichi, who blanched.

"I can't do it! Everyone knows I keep secrets – he'll throw that in my face!" he cried. "Tomoki talks to him about this stuff."

"About _my_ problems," Tomoki corrected. "Not his."

They stared at each other for a moment, before Junpei forced a weak laugh and pointed to where Pipismon was happily swinging from a tree branch. Izumi slapped his stomach with an irritated grunt. "Idiot."

"We need another Takuya," Kouji murmured, raising his eyes to the sky. "He's the one that does this sort of thing."

They all winced, but couldn't really find anything in the statement to deny. Izumi bit her lip, then set her jaw and grabbed Junpei and Kouji's arms. "Fine then. We all go."

"Are you crazy?" Junpei cried. "He's probably just been through hell and back and you wanna put him in a spotlight?"

"He needs his friends," she said firmly, pulling them both forward. Kouji grimaced but didn't otherwise object, and Kouichi and Tomoki exchanged glances, wondering if they could get away with not following. But after a moment, Kouji's discomfort pulled Kouichi in, and Tomoki realised Junpei had left their bag of bandages behind. He snatched it up and ran down to the river bank with them.

"Hey, Takuya?" Izumi began, and he popped his head up to look at her.

"You probably don't want to come in here. It's kinda a bath with pants on to get rid of all the dirt and soot and stuff. Water's probably pretty funky," he said, and she smiled.

"Can you come over here, then? We want to talk to you."

"Yeah, figured you would," he said, but didn't come any closer, just watching them all thoughtfully for a moment. "It was a really big fight… a lot of digimon got turned into digieggs and a lot of buildings were destroyed. I got beaten up pretty bad. But you guys found me and I'll get you to fix me up when I'm clean, so it's okay."

"You thought we were someone else to start with," Kouji prompted, and Takuya took a deep breath, swimming a single stroke closer.

"There was a… I'm not sure what she was. She wasn't a digimon, and she called herself Torasuto. She could change her appearance and her voice, and she was after my core – or whatever you call what's left over when a human's data is absorbed," he said, and then dunked his head under water for a moment before coming back up to continue. "I think she spent a while watching me as Candmon. And she knew I was stronger than her, so when she fought me, she turned into you guys to creep me out so I couldn't fight properly. I mean, I knew it wasn't you, but I still… I didn't want to fight your faces."

They exchanged glances, silent until Tomoki stepped forward. "Uh… we think we might know who she was. There's a bunch of evil creatures in the digital world lately called 'Haato'. The digimon think they're related to the Legendary Warriors, somehow."

"Do we know what they want?" he asked, but Izumi just gave him a look.

"Maybe we better leave our explanations until you've finished telling your story."

He looked away, then closed his eyes and pulled a smile onto his face. "Okay! It's not very interesting, but it's a story, so okay. I found out that the three Great Angels went missing and no one can get up to the Forest Terminal, so I figured that, rather than search all over the world for you guys, I would head that way and see if I could find Serifimon's Castle. And there were these pagumon who agreed to buy me a ticket if I built them a shrine. And that took a while, but it turns out that Agumon, who I was staying with at nights, was drugging me and keeping me asleep for several days at a time so it could slowly absorb my data," he said quickly, waving his hand as he carefully avoided looking at them. "It was all part of some master plan of Torasuto's. But while I was so weak that I couldn't talk and move at the same time, they revealed the master plan – as evil often does, and, long story short, I managed to get enough of my data back to fight. Turns out that a good twenty, thirty digimon were in on it too—I mean, the whole town knew about it—and when it became obvious their plan wouldn't work, the digimon that were in on it tried to attack me and take my data the old fashioned way. But I fought back and won and here we are."

Junpei dropped down to sitting, and Izumi covered her mouth with her hand. Tomoki hesitated, then asked, "Did – did you get your data back?"

"Oh yeah. And a bunch more too. I don't have a digivice, of course, so all that data just absorbed straight into me," he said, splashing water as he continued waving everything away. Kouji's eyes narrowed, and Kouichi bit his lip, both of them watching carefully as he turned away. "So I'm fine and perfectly back to normal!"

"How did you beat that many digimon?" Kouichi asked, and Takuya flung water up around him in an excessive shrug.

"I set the whole town on fire – what's a couple dozen digimon?"

"You stopped thinking, didn't you?" Kouji asked, and Takuya spun around to glare at him.

"What?"

"Like with our Beast spirits. You stopped thinking, and just fought."

Takuya stared at him silently for a few moments. "Is there a problem with that?"

"I don't know," he said. "Is there?"

"I'm fine," he snapped. "I won and I survived. Who cares how I did it?"

"Then it's fine," he replied quietly, and they just gazed at each other silently until Takuya turned away again.

"He's not okay," Kouichi murmured, and Tomoki shook his head.

"Big Brother Takuya doesn't like fighting that way," he whispered. "He doesn't like losing control."

"But he would never admit he's upset," Izumi pointed out, dropping down to sit on the very edge of the river. "How are we going to get him to deal with this if he won't talk about it?"

"Give him some time," said Junpei. "He hasn't had time to calm down yet. We gotta give him a chance to think it through on his own."

Kouji scoffed, but turned away when they looked at him. Kouichi frowned, then sighed and turned back to the others. "Well, time or not, we're not going to get any answers out of him."

"No. And I don't think we're going anywhere for a while, either," Izumi said quietly. "I want to wrap up his wounds, and I don't think he'll let me until he's 'clean' again."

Kouji's fist clenched on his arm, but he didn't say anything as the others mumbled their reluctant agreement.

"Let's set up camp," Junpei suggested. "There's no one around here and it's a clear area. And it's not like we couldn't use a break from travelling."

"I'll get the firewood," Kouji said coldly, and Kouichi blinked, looking around at him again.

"Okay, I'll come with –"

"I'm fine, Big Brother," he said, and Kouichi grimaced, recognising a request to be left alone.

"I'll go look for some food then," he said, and tilted his head at Tomoki. "I'll need a hand…?"

"Sure, I can help," he said, then looked over his shoulder to call, "Hey, Pipismon, you want to come help us find some food?"

"Find some food!" Pipismon cried, and then swung off its branch to soar off into the trees. Tomoki and Kouichi exchanged grins before setting off after it.

Kouji closed his eyes in silent dismissal and then stalked off in the opposite direction, leaving Junpei to look between Izumi and Takuya.

"I… guess you wanna keep an eye on him, huh?"

She blinked, then smiled and shrugged. "Maybe, but… would you mind staying with me?" she asked, and leaned over to take his hand. "I think I'd get depressed on my own."

He blushed as she squeezed his fingers, then shifted over to sit closer beside her. "You scared?"

"Mm… a little," she murmured. "I mean, all those times that bad things happened to us before, Takuya's always just given us some big speech and we've bounced back. But this time, it's like everything's happening to him."

He nodded slowly. "Yeah, on our way out of Flame City it hit me – remember when we were keeping Lucemon from getting to the real world, and he broke down? We all kinda crumbled." He frowned, raising his head to watch Takuya scrubbing at his hair. "I don't know how anyone but us would know it, but if someone took him out, they'd've pretty much cut us off at the legs. Not to mention that he was always our firepower. No pun intended."

"That's what's scaring me," she said. "What if someone _does_ know that?"

He hesitated, keeping his eyes locked on Takuya's back. There was a long scar across his shoulder blades – the digital equivalent of a deep and bloody wound. But Takuya was already twisting around the better to wash himself, only just wincing at the pain. Junpei smiled, closing his eyes in relief before looking around at her. "It'll be fine, Izumi. He's Takuya – Takuya always bounces back!"

* * *

><p>"Ten <em>days<em>?"

Tomoki winced and nodded, and Takuya gave a strange sort of whimpering cry, his eyes wide and disbelieving. After almost an hour splashing around in the river, he had come out and paced the surrounding woodlands for yet another hour to dry off before finally sitting down to let Izumi start bandaging him up. The others had finished setting up camp and were now sitting around watching her work, but Izumi had all her attention on Takuya and his wounds.

"We were all over the world, you know," she reminded him. "It took the twins and me almost three days to get out of the Dark Area."

"And Junpei was walking in the completely wrong direction," Tomoki added, ignoring the resulting shout of objection at the reminder.

"No, it's just that… that means I was unconscious for like a week," he explained, blinking fast. "And I was sleeping so much before we even got here, it's like I'm Kouichi."

Kouichi twitched but didn't comment. Now he was no longer being driven by instinct, it was hard to believe he'd enjoyed sleeping for an average of twelve hours a day. But he had the feeling Takuya wouldn't let him forget it for a while.

Takuya frowned, then slapped his hands together and looked up. "Okay, so what do we know so far? It's been twenty years since we were last here, and since then, pretty much everything's gone to hell," he said, glancing around to see if anyone objected, before his eyes settled on Kouji, who was standing on the edge of the clearing with his arms folded and an irritated glare on his face. "The up-and-coming Great Angels have gone missing, the whole Holy Court from Goatmon to Bokomon haven't been seen in ages, and our Legendary Spirits that said they would protect this world have been replaced by things called Haato that are essentially only happy if everyone else isn't."

"Pretty much," Junpei said.

"All this while we've been turning into digimon in the real world, and the spirits in our souls are being confined by some mysterious force that they couldn't tell us about even if we could speak to them," he continued, and Tomoki nodded.

"Right."

"And while we're here, we are gaining access to our powers, but only some of them, only if we're in a fight, and if we can do that without turning into digimon, we get our digivices back."

"Apparently," Kouichi said wearily, and Takuya glanced at him before looking back at Kouji.

"And we have absolutely no idea how all this is connected?"

"Not a clue," Izumi agreed.

"Great."

"So what do you want to do now?" Kouji asked. "We came here searching for a solution to our problem, but somehow I doubt you'll be satisfied until the world is stable again."

"Aw, Kouji, you know me so well," he said, grinning, but Kouji's expression didn't lighten any.

"That's your torso done," Izumi said suddenly, tying the bandage off. "Now, I saw you limping before – what happened to your foot?"

"Oh, it got zapped by electricity a couple of times," he said vaguely. "It's fine."

"Show me," she said impatiently, but he just lifted his eyebrows.

"In case you didn't notice, Izumi, this outfit I'm wearing doesn't make it easy to show off random parts of my body," he said, and held up his leg to show how his pants continued down to cover his whole foot.

"Then take it off," she said calmly, and Junpei jumped.

"Izumi!" Junpei cried. "He's not wearing a shirt!"

"So?" she asked, staring at him.

"You're a girl!"

"Oh, please. Not only are we sixteen, and hopefully beyond the 'my parts are different from your parts' routine, but my clothes thankfully came with underwear," she said, plucking at her skirt. "I assume yours did too. Didn't they?"

The boys blushed, then nodded, and she huffed.

"Well, there we are. And besides, it's not like Takuya has anything I haven't already seen."

"What?" Junpei and Tomoki asked, and the others blinked, suddenly realising her slip.

"The first time we came here," Kouji said, and only those who knew he was lying heard the shake in his voice. "Remember, you and Takuya were so set on chasing the toucanmon that you took off your swimsuits in front of her."

"They did?" Kouichi asked, grinning, while Junpei burned bright red.

"That's different! We were younger and… Izumi, it's not like with kids and…" He flailed his arms. "This is not ladylike behaviour!"

"And taking cheap shots like that is manly?" she shot back, and he winced, knowing he'd accidentally hit a sore point.

"It's just –"

"Guys, chill," Takuya said, and he eased himself up to standing. "Like Izumi said, we're all grownups here. It's just to get at an injury; it's not anything… nothing you need to be jealous of."

Izumi licked her lips, looking up at him nervously. "We're just friends, aren't we?"

"Great friends," he agreed quietly, then looked around at Junpei. "But nothing else."

Junpei frowned, then shrugged and looked away. "I guess."

"If that's settled," Takuya said, before beginning to unbuckle his belt.

"I'm going to go find Pipismon," Kouji said suddenly, and he rolled around his tree to turn away before Takuya could even pull his belt free.

They stared after him for a second, but Takuya just shrugged and struggled out of the complicated trousers, almost losing his balance a few times before dropping back to the ground in nothing but his bandages and the tight black shorts all the boys had found themselves wearing beneath their clothes. Izumi winked at him, and he grinned back, before she bent over to look at his bruised foot.

"This is so weird," she said, running her fingers over some of the black marks. "The electricity must have burned you somehow."

"It doesn't hurt," he said, frowning. "Well, it does, but not where you're touching."

"Really?"

"It looks strange to me," Tomoki said, leaning over to peer at it. "More like a pattern than a burn."

"Yeah," she murmured, then shrugged and yanked out another roll of bandages from their bag. "But we're not doctors. I'll just bandage up your foot and hope it's okay."

"I'm sure it's fine," he said, and then leaned back on his hands to let her start working. "I mean, for all we know it's a burn from when I turned into Flamon. I don't actually remember evolving into him, and it really hurt last time. Maybe this is a replacement for the pain."

"Hey, um, while we're on that subject," Junpei said awkwardly, and Takuya looked up at him from under his brows. He grimaced. "It's just… I was wondering what… happened."

"What do you mean?" he asked. "I already told you guys what happened."

"I was, uh… You didn't tell us in… like… detail," he said, and then waved his hands when Takuya's eyebrows met. "We don't need every detail, I'm just wondering more like what it was like when you were a digimon. When we were in the real world, you said it was like there was another person in your head trying to take control. One that wanted Kouji unconscious. Did that happen again?"

His eyes narrowed, and Tomoki bit his lip as he saw Takuya's fingers curling into the dirt. But Takuya didn't otherwise react until he opened his mouth to answer. "No more than when we used to fight with our beast spirits."

"Not to repeat myself, but in your case that doesn't tell us much," Junpei pointed out, ignoring the startled looks Izumi and Tomoki shot him. "Your beast spirit just wanted to burn everything."

He jerked upright, slamming his fist down in the dirt between his legs. "And yours wanted to bring a cave down on top of our heads!" he snapped, but Junpei only sat back with his arms folded.

"Hey, I'm not accusing you. We both controlled our spirits the second time we evolved. I'm just asking if we've got more than one hothead to worry about with you."

"You're making me sound crazy!"

"Well, maybe that's what we're dealing with," he said, raising his eyebrows. "You gotta admit, you weren't exactly yourself when we left the real world."

"That was then; I'm fine now!"

"We don't know that," he said, sighing out the words.

"Shut up," he snarled, then yanked his foot out of Izumi's grip and stood up.

"Hey, I'm almost done!" she cried, and Junpei frowned as he watched Takuya snatch up his clothes.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm giving you space to grow a brain!" he snapped. "Everyone else is getting their powers back – mine are just coming up a little different! It doesn't mean there's anything wrong with me!"

"I'm—_we're_—worried about you," he said, but Takuya just yelled something incoherent as he stalked off into the trees.

They watched him go, and Kouichi heaved out a heavy sigh and turned back to the others. "Well, that went well."

"Junpei," Izumi groaned. "You're seventeen, you're supposed to have tact by now."

"Someone had to ask," he said, and Tomoki slumped his chin into his hands.

"We didn't get any answers."

"Maybe Kouji'll sort him out," Kouichi suggested.

"Kouji?" Izumi repeated, doing an absolutely terrible job of concealing her disbelief, and they all had to wince to hide their agreement. After a moment, she shrugged and turned toward their pile of wood. "Well, in any case, we might as well get started on lunch. Anyone remember how to get a fire started without matches?"

* * *

><p>Takuya yanked his goggles down around his neck, glaring at the nothing directly in front of him before picking up his belt. He threaded it through its loops, then cinched it as tightly as he could manage, wincing as the movement pulled at a wound on his bicep.<p>

"Who does he think he's kidding, worrying about me?" he muttered, gripping the now throbbing muscle. "I'm the last person anyone should worry about. I have more digital power than any of them – I'm the safest one here!"

Agunimon's face flashed in his mind, and he narrowed his eyes, his hand clenching on his arm.

"We all merged with digimon and we all took on a little bit of the digital world. I just connected with mine more because I went back to the real world and realised we weren't all human. I _had_ to merge with Agunimon," he told himself firmly. "If that means I'm at risk of whatever's happening to the digital world, then fine. Better me than them. It made me stronger. I'm better able to deal with everything."

He shook his head hard, hunching his shoulders. "It'll work out somehow. We've just gotta find the Holy Court and the three Great Angels. Then we'll sort out these Haato, and then the court can work out how to make this whole digimon-human thing manageable. We'll all be fine."

Torasuto's irritated smirk swam in his vision, and he clenched his eyes shut. "I'm in control of my powers. I did what I had to at the Fire Terminal. I'm not losing myself. I'm part digimon, that's just who I am. And my friends know that, they don't think I'm turning into one. They won't attack Flamon," he hissed. "I'm fine. Everything'll work out. I'm not a target and I'm not in trouble. I'm fine. I'm not scared. I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine."

He flinched and spun around, then clenched his fists as Kouji stepped out from behind a tree, Pipismon swinging around to hang from a branch above him. "How long have you been there? You spying on me, now?"

He raised an eyebrow. "I get enough of you as it is without following you around," he said, then tilted his head. "We were heading back to camp when I heard you giving yourself a pep talk."

"It was not a pep talk," he said, scowling. "I don't need one. We're perfectly fine."

"_We_ might be. You certainly aren't," he said evenly, and Takuya narrowed his eyes.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He gazed at him silently for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. "I don't know why I'm bothering, but someone has to say it," he said, and looked off to the side. "You're allowed to be less than fine."

"Would you stop talking in riddles?" he snapped, but Kouji only looked at him sideways. It was Pipismon to answer.

"I did what I had to at the Fire Terminal. I'm not losing myself. My friends won't attack Flamon. I'm not a target," it parroted, swinging in place on its branch. "I'm fine. I'm not scared. I'm fine."

"All of that is true!" he shouted, pointing at it, and Kouji rolled his eyes.

"Then you wouldn't have to tell yourself. You talk too much, but you don't state the obvious when no one's around to hear it," he pointed out.

"Well, you were obviously around to hear it."

"Takuya."

"What?"

"What did Torasuto do to you?"

He flinched, then scowled. "I already told you. She pretended to be you guys and attacked me."

"And you know we wouldn't attack you, so it's fine?" he asked, and Takuya narrowed his eyes, looking away.

"That's right. She was just messing with my head, I know that."

He gazed at him silently for a moment, then slowly walked forward to stand in front of him. "What did Agumon do?"

"Agumon was just being used," he said. "It wanted to know what a legendary warrior's data looked like, so it was easy to trick into working for her."

He tilted his head, watching him carefully, and Takuya dropped into a crouch to avoid his gaze.

"I thought it was my friend," he muttered, glaring at nothing. "It thought it was taking care of me. And all that time, it was really drugging me to steal my data. All the digimon I talked to were all in on it. I trusted them, and they were all lying to me. I just feel… I feel so stupid."

"You are stupid," Kouji said, folding his arms over his chest. "You trust people way too easily."

He clenched his eyes shut, propping his elbows on his knees. "That's what she said."

"Torasuto?"

"Yeah. When she was you. She said I'm stupid and naive and I should die for it," He chuckled, lifting his head to look at him. "She really got your character down."

Kouji frowned, kicking Takuya's foot. "Idiot."

"Yeah, I've been told that."

"That's not what I meant," he said, and lifted an eyebrow when Takuya blinked at him. "You just give everything you have to everyone you meet, and if they don't outright attack you, you give them everything they could ever want from you. You just say 'it'll work out', as if everything in the universe balances. It's absolutely and completely moronic."

"I know."

He barked out a laugh, and Takuya grinned. "Hey, I can't help it. Whaddaya gonna do?"

"That's not what's funny," he said, then turned away with his hands in his pockets. "You don't know anything, Takuya."

"Hey!"

"You have no understanding of human weakness. To you, there's no such thing. There's just varying degrees of strength. No fear, only bravery. No anger or hatred, just limited amounts of love," He paused, a strange expression passing over the corner of his face that Takuya could see. "No matter how terrible or pathetic someone is, you find some strength or power in them that no one else can see. And you build that person up around that one tiny thing until it becomes everything they are. Whatever the weakness was, it's just not important anymore."

Takuya rapidly blinked, completely lost, and then looked around at Pipismon, who just grinned back, swinging happily but silent.

"But it's not the same for you. You don't forgive your own weaknesses, so you pretend you don't have any. But you do," he said, but he didn't look around to see Takuya's shock morph into a glare. "You're weak. You're scared, angry, paranoid, and not in control of yourself."

"Hey, shut up!" he shouted, slamming his fist into the dirt. "I am—!"

"—lying to everyone, including yourself, because you think you're not allowed to screw up," he finished, and Takuya shoved himself to his feet to glare at the back of Kouji's head.

"I am in complete control of myself," he snapped. "I do what I want to, when I want and for the reasons I want to."

"Except when you don't."

"Dammit, Kouji –!"

He turned around to face him, and Takuya pulled back, clenching his jaw because he honestly couldn't think of anything to say. He narrowed his eyes, then lurched forward to yell, but Kouji didn't let him start.

"Whether you like it or not, you are still human," he said, and Takuya flinched back again. They stared at each other for a moment, and Kouji closed his eyes, bowing his head as if in closing. "No matter what powers you have or what form you take, you are always going to be the human Takuya."

He stepped past him, and Takuya hunched his shoulders, glaring at the grass under his feet. "But what if I'm not?"

Kouji paused, but remained silent, letting Takuya continue on his own terms.

"What if… what if I'm not the person you think I am?"

He turned to look over his shoulder, and Takuya's head lowered, his shoulders rising even higher.

"I don't have a digivice. I didn't purify those digimon. I killed them," he whispered. "I just absorbed their data and used it for strength. That's not like me."

"Dwelling on what's happened isn't, either."

"Yeah," he agreed, but his laugh was lost in his body language. "You tell the others I'm sulking like this and I'll kick your arse."

He smiled, but it quickly faded as he considered. "Maybe those digimon couldn't be purified. They were just doing what a lot of digimon do – trying to find a way to become stronger," he pointed out. "That's not evil, it's just… how things work. As real and human as they seem, digimon are essentially data. They're programmed to act a certain way. You can't save someone who's just doing what they were created to do."

He hesitated, then lowered his shoulders and looked around. "Programmed?"

"They are digital. They correspond to pro-"

"Kouji, you're a genius!" he cried, and Kouji blinked, his cheeks flushing as Takuya suddenly lunged forward to grab his arms.

"What?"

"Programming! Everything in the digital world is just data – it can be read!" he said, and spun Kouji around to face back to camp. "We have our heading!"

"What the hell are you –?"

"You don't forgive your own weaknesses," Pipismon chirped as it soared overhead. "So you pretend you don't have any!"

"Ah," he said, grimacing as Takuya hustled him along. "This is an unhealthy coping mechanism you have."

"You're just as bad. And besides, there's no point talking about something that doesn't have a solution!" Takuya said brightly. "But the question of what we're going to do next does! I completely forgot about that disk mat thingy Yami gave Kouichi! We just need to talk to the gamers and they can read the data and tell us where the Great Angels are!"

"Big Brother and I already tried it once. We can't even turn it on," he said, then looked over his shoulder to try and meet Takuya's gaze. "Are you sure you're… with what happened?"

"You mean am I okay? No. But I'm not okay with what happened the first time I turned into Vrytramon, either. Never stopped me before," he said, then smiled. "Thanks for trying, though."

He just grunted and let Takuya keep pushing him back to camp.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	13. Breeze

_**Rebooted – Chapter Twelve**_

Breeze

**TRUFAX:** It's implied that Noah died in a car accident when he was about twelve-ish. But Mokuba, in Yugioh, is also about twelve-ish. And Noah looks at least a couple of years older than him. But he doesn't in the flash-backs (amazing what facial expressions can do, even in animation). It's not important, even for this story, but seriously, if I think about it too hard it's like trying to play the pin the tail on the donkey.

* * *

><p>"Here."<p>

Jounouchi blinked at the can of coffee dangling in front of his face, then smiled and opened his hands to let it drop into them. "S'ankyuu," he said, and opened it as Honda walked around to sit beside him. "What're you doing here?"

"A bunch of things, depending on who you ask," he said, opening his own coffee. "As far as my superiors are concerned, I'm investigating Kaiba Land on a variety of charges. As far as Kaiba's concerned, I'm here to warn Mokuba that they're in deep shit."

Jounouchi frowned, swallowing a mouthful of hot coffee before asking, "How come?"

"Are you kidding? Six kids that disappeared from Tokyo were last seen in Domino's Kaiba Hotel," he said, and Jounouchi winced, both of them looking around at the life-supporting virtual capsules lined up against the wall. It had been almost three days since they'd sent the teenagers into the other world, and though they'd seen the kids do everything from glow to switch forms, there had been no word from them or any sign of their return. Honda sighed, shaking his head at the sight. "I'm doing all I can to divert the investigation, but missing persons isn't my department. I can't really screw things up this time. Eventually, the Tokyo detectives are going to realise that the kids' disappearance is linked to the Solid Visions and Kaiba Corporation."

"Damn. And Anzu was so impressed that none of us had been brought in for questioning this year," Jounouchi said wearily. "She's gonna kill us."

"We could always not tell her."

"I like that idea… let's do that," he said, and they exchanged grins. Jounouchi took another mouthful of coffee, then raised his eyebrow. "And? Why else are you here? I thought Yuugi was pulling watch-paint-dry duty with me today."

He snorted. "I ran into Yami when I was doing my patrol yesterday. He barely even noticed me, he was so busy beating the rogue Duel Monsters into submission," he said, then winked. "He had all three Black Magicians out, and the Black Lustre Soldier, _and_ they were all standing around getting bored while he played magic and trap cards."

Jounouchi choked on his coffee, then pulled back to laugh aloud. "Man, he's such an easy tell these days!"

"Yeah, but I thought about it, and realised that while it is hilarious, we always end up copping the flack," he said. "I figured it was best for all involved if Yuugi took a day off."

"Cheers to that," Jounouchi said, and they clinked their coffee cans together.

"_What does Yuugi-san having a day off have to do with Yami-san fighting Duel Monsters?_"

They jumped, but while they did fall off their chairs, long practice allowed them to catch their coffee cans without spilling a drop. Jounouchi was the first to recover, and he scrambled to his feet to look over the monitoring desk. On the other side, wavering slightly with static, were full solid visions of the six children currently unconscious in the booths behind them. Tomoki was kneeling over the Duel Disk, the others gathered around him, but it was Kouichi that seemed to have asked the question. They stared at the kids, Jounouchi reaching over to press a button while Honda clambered back to his feet.

"What the hell are you guys wearing?"

"_Shut up,_" Kouji ground out, and Takuya laughed.

"_We didn't choose the outfits. They pretty much chose us,_" he said. "_But I'm with Kouichi, here – what does one person relaxing have to do with another person's fight?_"

The two adults exchanged glances, then shook their heads in silent agreement. "We'll tell you when you're older."

"_I hate it when people do that,_" Izumi said irritably. "_We do know about sex, you know. And we are all legal._"

"Just because you're legal doesn't mean you should know minor details," Honda said, nodding to himself, and Jounouchi rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. Hey, it's good to see you guys are all alive. We were getting worried."

"_Really?_" Junpei tilted his head, confused. "_Last time we were in the digital world, absolutely no time passed in the real world at all._"

"It's been almost three days," said Honda. "Your parents are having fits."

Kouichi, Junpei and Tomoki all swore, and both Izumi and Kouji looked around at Takuya. "_Three days? What're we supposed to do?_"

"_Uhh… let them freak?_" he suggested, spreading his hands. "_Do we have another option?_"

"_We could tell them what's going on,_" Tomoki said, wincing. "_But… I don't think it'd go over too well._"

"_My parents would have simultaneous heart attacks,_" Kouji said, folding his arms. "_Mum panics every time I don't come home for the night._"

"_Well, our mother is probably already having one,_" Kouichi pointed out, before turning to look at Honda. "_What's going on over there?_"

"Well, it's no consolation to your parents, but a lot of kids tend to go missing around Domino whenever Duel Monsters become real, and show up again afterward with no drama," he said, pulling a notebook from his breast pocket and flipping through the pages. "So we don't put a lot of effort into searching for them. You're a little different, because you're from Tokyo, and so it's actually being treated like a missing persons case, rather than a side effect of Solid Vision Scares. But it's still only a relaxed situation. It won't escalate for another day or two, but if you could give us a story to tell your parents, that'd go a long way to calming everyone down."

"_What about the Duel Monsters?_" Takuya asked, as the others exchanged worried glances. "_Are they still showing up all over?_"

"Oh yeah. Yesterday was a complete disaster," Jounouchi said, scowling. "Duel Monsters were just climbing up out of thin air. But it calmed down a lot this morning. Yami, Mai and I have all been duelling pretty much constantly, and we've got it down to a manageable level."

"Manageable?" Honda repeated, staring at him. "Like hell! You just left it to us cops!"

"Which we wouldn't have done if it wasn't manageable."

"More like you guys just had better things to do!"

"You guys get paid to protect the city. We have to do it out of the goodness of our hearts."

"And to get immunity from Solid Vision related charges."

"You just try and arrest me, monkey boy, and we'll see how far you get before I break your kneecaps!"

"_Uh, Jounouchi-san? Honda-san?_" Tomoki called, and they both blinked, turning to look at him again. He hesitated, then grimaced and looked up at Takuya. "_I guess we had some questions or something._"

"_Yeah, you guys can read data, right?_" Junpei asked. "_You can help us out with information, right?_"

"We can't," Honda said. "But Mokuba can."

"I sent him an alarm when you guys contacted us," said Jounouchi. "He said to tell us whenever you guys called, so I figure he'll come by soon."

"Yuugi said we should tell him, too," Honda pointed out, and they grinned at each other. "But I'm not calling the game shop today."

"No, I like my head attached to the rest of my body," he agreed, then looked back at the teenagers. "Sorry we can't be more help, guys."

"_What help have you been?_" Kouji asked, glaring at them. "_All you've done is rant and confuse us with riddles about Yuugi._"

"It's so nice to know that all world saving teenagers have to put up with some version of Seto Kaiba," said Jounouchi. "It almost makes him tolerable."

"You're kidding," Honda said, and Jounouchi grinned.

"I did say almost."

"_How do you guys ever get around to saving worlds when all you ever do is crack bad jokes?_" Kouji demanded, and Kouichi laid a hand on his shoulder. He huffed out an irritated breath and looked away, and Junpei made a face at his back.

"_Don't worry about Kouji. He's been in a lousy mood since we got here._"

Kouji glared at him, but the others just laughed, before they were cut off by the sudden appearance of a flat holographic screen showing Mokuba Kaiba's head and shoulders.

"About time you guys contacted us! We thought something had gone wrong!" he snapped. "Please don't tell me you broke the Duel Disk. Those models are expensive!"

"_No, we just had other things to worry about,_" Izumi said. "_Not to mention we couldn't figure out how to turn it on._"

"_We didn't ask the one person that would know,_" Kouichi added, smiling at Tomoki, who grinned back.

"_How do you break a virtual incarnation of something?_" Junpei asked curiously, and Mokuba slapped a hand to his head.

"Does it matter? What's going on? Are you ready to come back yet?" he asked, and Takuya shook his head.

"_Not by a long shot. We need help, and we figured that since you can read the data of the digital world, you might have some answers for us._"

Mokuba frowned but nodded. "Okay. What do you need to know?"

"_We're looking for some friends of ours that have gone missing,_" he explained. "_Is there any way you could help us figure out where they are?_"

"Complicated, but not impossible. Do these people have names?"

"_Bokomon, Neemon, Ophanimon, Serifimon, and Cherubimon,_" he said, ticking them off on his fingers. "_Those are the big five we want to find._"

"Gimme a second," said Mokuba, and he looked at something they couldn't see, his eyes flashing as if reading fast. After a few moments, he frowned. "I've got about ten things called 'boko' and fifty-something 'nee'. Anything I can use to narrow it down?"

"_They'd be together, probably,_" Izumi said, and Mokuba looked away again.

"Mm… I don't… no, there's nothing," he said, before his frown deepened. "The search engine keeps bringing up a set of codes, but I can't make any sense of it. My guess would be it's encrypted, but it's hard to tell with junk data."

"_What does it mean for us if it's encrypted?_" asked Kouichi.

"Don't know. It might mean that whatever the data used to be, it's now corrupted beyond repair – destroyed in your world. Or it could just mean it's locked down pretty tight."

"_Can you decrypt it_?" Tomoki asked.

"Not a chance. I told you before – we can only read what's going on in the digital world. The only people who can actually alter the data are you guys," he said, and the others sighed, but Kouji just turned to look at Takuya again.

"_A locked down area could be the Forest Terminal. If nobody's been able to get up to Serifimon's castle, then that could mean it's sealed off like it was when we first got here,_" he pointed out, and Takuya nodded.

"_That's what I was thinking. But how are we supposed to get up there this time? We needed all our digivices, the first time around._"

"Digivices?" Honda asked, and Izumi reached into her pocket while Kouji fished in his bag for a moment. They both held up small, plastic devices, and he stepped around the monitoring station for a closer look. "They look like really big tamagochi."

Tomoki grinned. "_Well, they do hold a bunch of creatures._"

"Have all of you got these?" asked Mokuba.

"_Just us two,_" Izumi corrected. "_They store and purify data from the digimon we defeat, and the others haven't fought anyone yet._"

"Are you sure? I'm looking at your data here, and that doesn't make any sense."

"_Why not?_"

"Well, it's obvious you're all supposed to have more data – there's information here that basically equates to 'data missing' for all of you. But it's not just you and Kouji that have filled some of it. Kouichi has a partial code, and Takuya's is… completely screwed up," he said, throwing up a hand in confusion. "But his entire set of data makes no sense whatsoever."

"_That's okay. He's pretty incomprehensible at the best of times!_" Junpei said brightly, and Takuya glared at him.

"_What do you mean, it doesn't make sense?_" asked Kouichi.

"The binary—the zeroes and ones that make up his programming—doesn't translate to anything. I know it's Takuya and I can see his basic _self_ on the system, but beyond that…" He paused, raising his eyebrows as he looked around at them. "You're unstable."

"_No change there, then,_" Kouji muttered, and Takuya growled at him.

"No, I mean –"

"_I know what you mean,_" he snapped, and the others all blinked.

"_You do?_"

"_Yeah, I do. But it's not our concern right now,_" he said, and glared back up at Mokuba. "_You didn't tell us where the other digimon we asked you about were._"

"Seriously, the kid's like a long-haired mini-Kaiba," Jounouchi stage-whispered. "When did the bastard have time to have a kid?"

"Gozaboro mustn't have been torturing him as much as we thought, if ten-year-old Kaiba had time to get laid," Honda pointed out, and they both snickered until Mokuba glared at them.

"I'm going to tell my brother you said that."

"We'll be good!"

He continued to scowl at them for a moment, then went back to whatever he had been looking at before. "I'm not finding any living data with those names. A lot of environments and a few encrypted passages, but no living data." He furrowed his brow, then shrugged and looked at them again. "I can keep searching, but as far as my quick scans are showing, those three digimon don't exist."

"_They must still be in their lesser forms,_" Takuya surmised, folding his arms over his waist. "_Well then, I guess our best bet is to look for Bokomon and Neemon. How far are we from the Forest Terminal?_"

"_A few days' walk, at least,_" Izumi said, and they all groaned.

"_I am so sick of travel,_" Junpei sighed. "_And walking… I hate walking._"

"_Maybe we'll get lucky and meet a Trailmon!_" Tomoki suggested, and Takuya shrugged.

"_Well, thanks, Mokuba,_" he said, nodding to him. "_We'll check back if we get any more questions._"

"_And if we come up with something to tell our parents,_" Kouichi added. "_I really wish this was like last time._"

"I'll see if I can speed up your system. Get you further along in less real time," Mokuba offered, and both Jounouchi and Honda saluted them with their coffee cans.

"Good luck, guys!"

"Hope you find your friends."

"_Thanks,_" they chorused, before Tomoki leaned over and touched something on the mat. They all disappeared, and Jounouchi and Honda turned to look up at Mokuba.

"Are they screwed?"

"No more than you always used to be," he replied, and Jounouchi winced.

"That doesn't really say a whole lot."

Mokuba just raised his eyebrows and turned off his hologram in silent point.

* * *

><p>With the exception of Kouichi, who had spent most of his time in the digital world only semi-aware but still constantly in the Dark Area, none of the group were any more or less familiar with any part of the digital world than any of the others. However, certain adventures and memories had classified some areas with a sense of ownership that none of them could explain. Some of it made sense: the Northern Area was covered in ice, so Tomoki was considered the authority on it. Others, like the Wind Factory, came down to who had found their spirits there. But some were purely about who had kicked the most butt there.<p>

So none of them bothered to comment when Kouji took the lead as they walked into Breeze Forest. Takuya and Tomoki naturally fell back to lag behind the group, and when Pipismon flew off to the side, they followed. Breeze belonged to Kouji and Izumi, and Junpei had a right to be there for the initial revisit. Takuya and Tomoki were intruders.

Kouichi hesitated as the two groups split, his head jerking around as he tried to decide which path to take. The others didn't notice, and he grimaced before hurrying after his brother. He didn't have a technical right to be there, but his brother gave him access to everything. Kinda.

"So… this is where you found Fairymon's spirit, right?" he asked, trotting to walk alongside Izumi. "You fought little mushroom people, didn't you?"

"Yup," she said, and then grimaced. "Except, well… I hadn't really worked out my powers yet, so I kinda –"

"I was nearby and heard her scream," Kouji stated without looking around. "Takuya and Tomoki had tried to take a different route to the Forest Terminal, and Junpei didn't have his spirit yet. She would've been screwed."

Kouichi blinked, then leaned away as Izumi's eyes narrowed into a glare.

"Hey, I was doing fine," she snapped. "I made one mistake. One. I could've beaten him."

"You were human again by the time I got there," he replied coldly. "They would have destroyed you."

"I could have evolved again!"

He snorted, but Junpei jumped in before they could continue. "But it all worked out okay in the end. It turned out Cherubimon's evil influence had spread over the Mushmon—that's what the mushroom people are called, you know—so that when Kouji purified them, they turned into these really nice guys. Except that I'm pretty sure they drug the Floramon to keep them so happy all the time…"

"Junpei!" Izumi cried, laughing despite herself. "The herbs they give the Floramon are not drugs!"

"You sure? They seemed pretty high off that one attack…"

"Junpei!"

"So…" Kouichi said, exchanging knowing smiles with Junpei. "When do we get to Breeze City?"

"There's no city, as such," said Kouji. "The station platform is the only real building."

"The trees are all hollowed out to be houses," Junpei explained, pointing to a tree up ahead which had what was clearly a door carved into the bark. "Unless you're looking, you could never tell which ones are houses and which ones are just trees."

"That's really –" Kouichi paused, raising his eyebrows as he noticed Kouji's steps beginning to slow. He stopped walking at the same time as his brother, both of them extending hands to keep the other two back. "Kouji? What's wrong?"

He didn't answer for a long moment, his head only shifting centimetres as he looked around. "The digimon…" he murmured, and they all blinked in response.

Izumi hesitated, then turned around, frowning when she noticed how still the forest was. She took a half-step back toward Junpei, turning in a slow circle as she gazed up at the trees. "We're halfway into town… surely someone would have come to greet us, by now."

"Oh, they've come, alright," Kouji muttered, and he tightened his grip on his staff as his eyes settled on a branch high above their heads. "Big Brother, Junpei… stay behind us."

* * *

><p>"Um, Big Brother Takuya…"<p>

"Hm?"

"Where are we going?"

He glanced over his shoulder to where Tomoki was giving him a blank look, and then shrugged. "Nowhere. We're just following Pipismon so the others can have a walk down memory lane."

"Why?" he asked, but didn't stop moving. Pipismon had led them a fair way into the forest, away from where they knew Breeze to be, but although the paths were getting thinner, they were being quickly enveloped by edible berries and plants. The older he got, the less Tomoki found to complain about when food was involved.

But Pipismon had finally landed on a branch, and Takuya stopped several metres away, turning to look at Tomoki properly. "Because this is a special place for Izumi. She should be allowed to have it, without anyone to ruin it."

"But the others went with her," he pointed out, clambering over a large root to sit on. "And this isn't that special – same as the gorge wasn't so special for me. We got our spirits here, yeah, but we also got our butts kicked regardless."

"Mm… but it's different," he said, then paused and glanced around with a slight frown. He hesitated, then shook his head and grabbed a bushel of berries from one of the trees before sitting down. "Even though I think we would've gotten them anyway, I think we all _earned_ our human spirits. We couldn't have absorbed them if we hadn't done or wanted to do something worthy of them. You earned yours because you wanted to save me from the Candmon and Wizamon. You didn't care about the place we found it in, or the people supposedly protecting it. You earned it for being a hero at the time."

Even five years later, the term and praise from Takuya made Tomoki blush, and he grinned despite himself, fidgeting with his vest. "Nah…"

"Don't be modest; it's polite and stupid," he said, knocking Tomoki's leg and then offering up some of his berries. "Izumi's different. She got to know the Floramon in Breeze. She wanted to help them long before she could fight, remember? She and Junpei tried to help rebuild the terminal after the Mushmon ruined it."

"Yeah…"

"She got her spirit because she wanted to protect the place and the people of Breeze," he said, but the tension in his voice had slackened, and his eyes flickered up to stay on the leaves above them. "So this _place_ is what means something to her. Kouji saved the day because that's what Kouji does. Junpei was just there to help Izumi. But to her, this place, the people in it… they mean something special. You and me aren't a part of it. We'd ruin it for her."

"I guess…" Tomoki glanced at him, frowning when he noticed Takuya's distraction, and followed his gaze upward. He couldn't see anything, and so lowered his gaze back down. "What about Kouichi?"

"When it's a bad situation—even if he doesn't actually know it's a bad situation—Kouichi goes where Kouji goes," he said, and Tomoki's frown deepened. Takuya was clearly only paying the most necessary attention to him, meaning there really was something over their heads that Tomoki couldn't see.

"What bad situation?"

His eyes narrowed, but he didn't even stop eating the berries as he murmured, "Do you remember, when we were fighting Serifirotmon in the dark, I told you to close your eyes?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Uhh… yeah…"

"Remember how you could kinda sense what was going on around you, in the dark? You could sense your own powers, and where Serifirotmon was?"

"Yeah, but I don't –"

"Do it again."

"What?"

"Close your eyes and expand your senses," he ordered, and Tomoki stared at him blankly for a second before doing so.

"You do know I'm still human over here, right?"

"Doesn't matter. You're still Chakmon on the inside. That's how Kouji and Izumi can use their powers, I think. You just have to do the same."

He furrowed his brow, confused. "I don't have a clue what you're… you're…" He trailed off, eyebrows meeting as the hair on the back of his shoulders began to prickle. He licked his lips and bent his head further, focussing his thoughts as Takuya had once told him how to do. It took a few moments, but slowly the blackness of his own eyelids faded away, and he became aware of the forest around him. He didn't open his eyes, but somehow he knew Pipismon had stopped munching on berries and was now hanging still and (for once) silent. Somehow he knew that the three of them weren't alone. There were lots of digimon around them. Dozens. All of them hidden, but watching. None of them felt friendly.

He tried to focus on them, figure out what they were, but all he could guess was that they were there. He didn't even know _where_ they were, exactly. He opened his eyes again and swallowed hard when Takuya met his gaze.

"Wh- what do we do?"

"Don't panic," he said, and offered up a very real and reassuring smile. "We're not here to make trouble, and it could be they're just keeping an eye on us. They haven't attacked yet, so I think it's best to just make sure we know where they are and not do anything dumb."

"But we're always doing dumb things!" he hissed, and Takuya laughed.

"True enough…"

"I can't even tell where they are!"

"The point is that they're all around us," he said, and then popped another berry in his mouth. "If they're smart, they're either not attacking us because they don't want to, or because they're trying to size us up as targets. And they'll never know how powerful we are if we don't show off just how strong we are."

"But they can hear us! They would've heard you talking about Serifirotmon!"

Takuya's grin only widened, and Tomoki gripped his hat in frustration.

"Junpei said that humans are like, really, really valuable to digimon! And the legendary warriors are even better!" he whispered, staring at him. "He said that some digimon will try and kill us to get our powers!"

"Like they did back at Flame City?" he asked lightly, and Tomoki's eyes widened at the same time as his shoulders slumped.

"Big Brother Takuya…"

He pushed himself back to his feet and flung the now empty berry bushel away, wiping his hands on his thighs as he looked around at the forest. "It's exactly the same situation. Anyone tries to hurt us – I hurt them. Fair deal, don't you think?"

"We'd like to see you try!" a raspy voice suddenly snarled, and the exploding mushrooms began to fall.

* * *

><p>"Are we being watched?" Junpei asked, but he didn't make any moves to step behind Kouji and Izumi.<p>

"Definitely," whispered Kouji. "There's a bunch of them in each of the trees around us, and a heap hiding around the roots."

"Are they dangerous?" Izumi asked, spreading her hands in readiness to call on the wind. "Are we going to have to fight?"

"Oh yeah," Kouichi murmured. "You can feel it."

"Takuya… Takuya and Tomoki are on their own." Kouji cursed and shifted a little closer to his brother. "We've gotta get back to them. We're not safe separated like this."

Junpei grinned despite himself. "Now there's something we never thought we'd hear you say."

"I think this means we're all friends now," Izumi added teasingly, and Kouji scowled at them over his shoulder.

"Will you two please focus? We're about to fight, here!"

Kouichi glanced back at him, then lifted his chin and stepped forward. "Digimon!"

"Kouichi!" Junpei and Izumi hissed, but he ignored them.

"Come out! We know you're there!" he called. "Maybe we can get through this without a fight!"

"What if we don't want to?" a squeaky voice demanded. "Digimon like fighting!"

"Then fight amongst yourselves!" he retorted, and there was a distinct rumbling of objection from all around them.

"What's the point in that?" the voice asked. "You're the ones we want!"

"Why?" asked Izumi. "What'd we do to you?"

"You… have to… I mean…"

They exchanged glances, and another voice yelled in frustration. "You're humans! You come from the other world, which means that if we take your data, we can be stronger!"

"You don't sound so sure of that," Junpei pointed out, and the forest rumbled with nervous mutterings again.

"So what?" the voice demanded. "We're going to delete you, that's all that matters!"

"What if we don't want to die?" Kouichi asked, staring up at the trees. "We're going to defend ourselves!"

"Exactly," Kouji snapped, and he hefted his staff. "Attack us, and you'll only get hurt."

"Says you!"

"No, says the Legendary Warrior of Light who is starting to get really sick of all the digimon he saved twenty years ago," he snarled, and the forest immediately fell silent. They paused, exchanging glances at the uneasy atmosphere, before a slight croaking drew their attention to a root near Izumi's feet.

A mushmon poked his head out, glaring at them with a look more suited to a three year old than a digimon. "You didn't have to remind us, you know. We do know who you are."

"Then why the hell are you threatening us?" Junpei cried, and the mushmon's hand appeared, toying with the bark of the root he still hid behind.

"We… we don't want to attack the Lady of the Wind. Or the Grand Strategist. We'd – you saved us, and we…"

"But we can't go against Modesuti-sama's will!" a chamelimon shouted, suddenly appearing out of the wood of a tree above them. "And as she commands, we must delete you!"

"Huh?" Junpei asked, before a vine suddenly whipped past him, nothing more than a blur as it lashed its way around Kouichi's torso.

"Hey!" he shouted, and then yelled out as it yanked him forward and away from the others.

"Kouichi!" Kouji shouted, his staff beginning to shine. "Let him go!"

"_Brezza Petalo_!"

The miniature tornadoes shot out faster than Kouji could move, and though they didn't sever the vines, they did hit hard enough that Kouichi was released. He dropped to the ground in a roll and came up beside Junpei just as a pink whip slashed a path through the air, the very air pressure slicing open Junpei's cheek. Izumi spun around, her hands dancing as they redirected the wind, but Kouji had already shifted his aim. His staff cut through the whip like the sword it mimicked, and a deep voice screamed in agony.

"You cut off his tongue!" another cried. "Grand Strategist or not, you'll pay for that!"

Kouji didn't even blink; he just turned on his heel, staff spinning up onto his arm as he aimed on instinct. "_Licht Kugel_!" he shouted, and the laser shot into the trees, another chamelimon dropping from the leaves with a shout. He turned again, twirling his staff as he glared at the trees. "Had enough? We can keep this up just as long as you can!"

There was a pause, and Izumi looked down at the now cowering Mushmon. "What the heck is going on here? Why are you attacking us?"

"H- Haato," it squeaked. "Modesuti-sama… and – and Dependensu… they – she commands your d- deletion."

"In exchange for your cores, we earn your data and our freedom," the first chamelimon explained, glaring down at them from under its helmet.

"Freedom?" Izumi repeated. "They're threatening you all, aren't they?"

"W- we cannot disobey," a floramon whispered, appearing by Junpei's feet. "Dependensu has already killed half my family. I… I don't want to be deleted."

"The cores of a bunch of warriors that _abandoned_ us is a small price to pay for our lives," another mushmon yelled, and Kouji narrowed his eyes.

"Takuya said Torasuto wanted his core, too," he murmured, then swung his staff down to point directly between Mushmon's eyes. "Talk. Why do the haato want our cores?"

"Kouji, they've been threatened enough!" Izumi cried, but he ignored her, his staff shining as he pressed it closer to Mushmon's forehead.

"Th- they didn't say! Just… something about… Modesuti-sama said something about freedom; we don't know what she meant!"

"Freedom? She wasn't talking about yours?" asked Kouichi, and he shook in negative.

"Definitely not!"

Kouji hesitated, then pulled his staff back and turned to look at the others. "I don't like where this is going."

"The way I see it, we have two options," Junpei said, holding up two fingers to tick off. "One, we can beat up these digimon and every single other one we meet, because I'm pretty sure the haato are threatening everyone _they_ meet…"

"Or two, we can pay Modesuti a little visit," Izumi finished, setting a hand on her hip with a smirk. "I really want to thank her for how she's treated my friends, don't you, guys?"

Kouichi nodded, and Kouji narrowed his eyes again in silent agreement.

"She's the one who destroyed the shrine the gomamon built to honour Izumi-chan!" Junpei added. "I didn't even get to see it yet! She's gotta pay for that!"

"As long as you've got priorities, Junpei," Kouichi said, clapping him on the shoulder.

* * *

><p>A fork of lightning shot out to zap the ground, forcing Takuya to stumble backward with a shout.<p>

"Hey, hey!" he cried, then yelped as another one scorched the ground he had just skirted around as he continued running. "Hey, come on! What is it with digimon and frying my feet?"

"We like to see you dance!" a bird-type crowed, and a strange blue creature leaping alongside it giggled wildly. After they managed to dodge the first volley of exploding mushrooms, dozens of different digimon had appeared and begun attacking. None of them were doing a particularly good job of aiming, but they were both already smoking from the lightning bolts, gas attacks, flames and plants that had managed to hit them. That was probably why Takuya kept running, rather than turn and fight, but Tomoki still had to ask.

"Why… don't you… just… evolve?" he panted, struggling to climb over things Takuya simply vaulted. "I bet… Flamon would… get us out of this… in… no time."

"I can't _evolve_," Takuya said, ducking another vine. "I don't even remember turning into Flamon, let alone how."

"Heh. So weak!" a mushmon sneered, swinging along beside them on a vine. "Don't you have any control?"

Takuya lashed out at him with a wild fist, but didn't pause for proper aim and so missed by a long shot. The digimon that were keeping pace laughed.

"Our mistress will take care of you easily," a ladybug-looking digimon said, wings invisible as it flew. "She's so powerful that a pathetic little thing like you is below her."

"So maybe you should just let her get on with her day without destroying us, huh?" Takuya snapped, but it didn't get the intended reaction. The digimon all fell silent, their smiles fading as they exchanged glances, before a blue human-type barked out a harsh laugh.

"You are _normally_ below her notice, but our mistress is so great and humble that she wastes her time on such stupid creatures as yourself!" it cried. "We should be thankful for such a gracious mistress!"

"Should?" a sharp voice snapped, and the digimon immediately froze in place. Tomoki glanced over at Takuya, who only had time to blink back at him before he cannoned into something large and white. He bounced backward, but managed to catch himself and roll onto all fours before Tomoki had even managed to stop running.

"Takuya –" He began hurrying back to him, but something green lashed out across his path, catching him in the chest and throwing him back. He hit a low hanging branch and dropped to the ground, winded.

After a moment, Takuya managed to look up from under his hair, scowling at the figures appearing around them. He had run into a tall woman with the same face as Torasuto, but the way she dressed and held herself was completely different. Her robes were ripped and skimpy, only just covering what needed to be covered but hiding nothing. It was blatantly obvious that she wasn't wearing anything beneath them, and when she bent over to look at him, Takuya got the distinct impression she was inviting him to stare down her chest to make sure.

"Hello, digihuman," she murmured, and he let out a growl from between clenched teeth.

"Haato."

"Modesuti, actually," she said irritably, and then reached out a hand and shoved at his forehead until he fell over onto his back.

Tomoki coughed, finally clearing his lungs enough for him to look up, but when he lifted his head, all he could see was a giant tower of twisting plants, grown into the general shape of a human. Towards the top was a flattened area, where small leaves and sticks shifted into what could have passed for an expression.

"This," Modesuti supplied, "is Dependensu. Don't take it personally if she doesn't talk to you. She needs gracious and caring hosts like myself to speak for her."

Takuya scowled at them both, then rolled off to the side, only to stand and find himself staring into a very pale face that seemed almost like a male version of the haato he had met so far. The dark blue eyes narrowed as it took a step forward, forcing Takuya back.

"I am Potensharu," the third haato snarled, while one of Dependensu's vines slithered out to trip Takuya and make him fall to the ground. Takuya groaned as his head bounced on the dirt, but forced his eyes open to finish looking the man up and down. He was shorter than the other two, his aquamarine hair cut and combed into a style vaguely reminiscent of Seto Kaiba, and rather than the robes of Torasuto and Modesuti, he wore a white middle school uniform. It gave the obscure overall effect of a hall monitor, complete with irritable expression.

"This is no concern of mine."

"No," Modesuti agreed. "But the digihuman does irritate, and Dependensu does wish for the teddy bear's deletion… We two are the greatest of the haato, so it does fall to us to honour them with death by our hands."

"Only because we're the ones that'll get the job done without wasting time," he snapped back. "So, Deh, if you wouldn't mind getting this over and done with, I've got better things to do."

"You have no sense of dramatic tension, Potensharu," she said, and then bent over Takuya again. "Does he, little digihuman?"

"What the hell do you want?" he demanded, and she sighed.

"I see you don't, either. Won't you at least thank me for deigning to give you my presence? I'm still waiting on all of you, by the way," she added, with a sharp look at the cowering digimon.

"Oh, mistress, we just wouldn't dare to interrupt you!" the ladybug cried.

"That's right!" the blue one agreed. "We were – we were so mesmerised by your voice and glorious beauty that we –"

"Skip to your apologies and thanks, insects," Potensharu growled. "We don't have all day."

"We're sorry!" they all squeaked, and the blue one bowed low. "We thank you for relieving us of this honourable duty that we did so sorely so want to do but will humbly return to you as per your wishes!"

Takuya stared around at Tomoki, who just blinked back in disbelief. Small and low-level though they might be, there were almost twenty-five digimon surrounding them. All of them were simpering and bowing low to these three creatures that didn't have so much as a weapon between them.

But Modesuti just smiled, rolling her shoulders as she stood up. "That was better. Go away, now."

"Yes, mistress!" they all cried, and then fled into the trees. Takuya slowly picked himself up onto his knees again, but he had only made it half way before Modesuti's hand latched around his chin.

"Now you, digihuman," she said coldly. "Thank me for allowing you so close to me."

He grunted as her nails bit into his skin, but still managed to bare his teeth in a grin. "Thanks for making me feel dirty, you tacky slut."

She blinked at him slowly, and then smiled and released his chin. He yanked away from her, but not fast enough, as she suddenly kicked her stiletto-heeled boot into his lower abdomen. He automatically retched, trying to fold, but one of Dependensu's tentacle-like vines had shot out and wrapped around his shoulders. It dragged him upright and spun him around until he was completely wrapped up tight, upright and ramrod straight.

"Taku-" Tomoki started, but it trailed off in a strangled croak as Potensharu grabbed him around the neck with one arm, hauling him to his feet.

"Are we done playing? Can Deh please kill Ice so we can slaughter Wind and leave everything to the others?" he asked wearily. "Seriously. I feel wrinkles forming."

"In a moment," she said, waving him off as she turned back to Takuya. "As I was trying to say with that physical demonstration, digihuman, you shouldn't insult people that are better than you. It's just not done."

He gasped for breath, still struggling not to throw up as his stomach recovered from the blow. "Y- You destroy shrines. You break people's faith." He hiccupped and coughed, then paused to pant as his gut finally relaxed. He closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them to glare. "You murdered the digimon of Renamon's village. I've scraped dirt from my boot that's better than you."

She licked her lips rather than answer straight away. Her head jerked to the side, and Tomoki saw her fists flexing in anger. But she managed to keep a steely smile on her face as she whispered, "I will not be mocked. Dependensu?"

The vines clenched shut, and Takuya yelled in pain, his neck twisting as he tried helplessly to break free.

"No! Let him go!" Tomoki screamed, and he thrust his elbow back into Potensharu's rib cage. The haato dropped him from the pain, and Tomoki threw himself at Modesuti, tackling her down into the dirt. She cried out in more disgust than pain, but Tomoki didn't notice, grabbing a stick as he clambered to his knees over her. He held it above her neck in threat, panting hard. "Let Takuya go! Now!"

"You filthy little human!" she spat, and her hand came out of nowhere, grabbing the stick and shoving it down into his thigh. He yelped, and her hand then latched onto his vest, shoving him back until it was him on the ground with her leaning over him. She pressed down close, teeth bared as she stared at him with wide eyes. "You dare to touch me? You dare to threaten _me_? I do not need weapons for a reason, you insignificant snowflake! I could snap you like a twig!"

"Tomoki!" Takuya cried, but anything more was cut off as the vines around him tightened until they could all hear them creaking against each other.

"Evolve," Tomoki breathed, staring up at him. "Please, Takuya… evolve, fight them, please…"

Modesuti's hand shoved him down, and he gasped as his head thunked against the dirt. "As my dear Dependensu is trying to tell your friend through physical means, worry about yourself. You are going to die; right here, right now. Your friend is going to die. You both have separate predicaments. Stop thinking about each other and waste your concern on yourselves!"

"Our friends will come," Tomoki mumbled, his head spinning from the impact. "They will save us."

"They _will_?" Potensharu repeated. "What, you're going to wait for them? When are they going to get here? You'll be dead in a minute!"

"We can… hold out until then," Takuya croaked. "I'm… I'm strong enough to… I can do that."

There was a pause in the creaking, before Takuya suddenly gasped down a breath, the vines loosening just enough for him to breathe. He panted for air, looking around at what he thought was Dependensu's face with what he hoped was a glare. "I… I don't need the others to… to beat you." The vines continued to slacken, and Takuya jerked as they finally released him, letting him drop to the ground. He blinked rapidly, and Modesuti screeched in frustration.

"Didn't you hear him?" she shouted. "He's only holding out until his friends get here!"

Tomoki furrowed his brow as something about all this sparked in his sluggish brain. He blinked, then flinched as he realised the vines were closing around Takuya again. "No! No, you're wrong! Takuya never waits! He fights! He doesn't leave it to other people!" he cried, and grinned when Dependensu paused again. "He doesn't accept that! He doesn't depend on anyone!"

"Shut up!" Modesuti commanded, and she hit him again, this time hard enough for his brain to freeze a second. He moaned, letting his eyelids slide closed, but knew he had done enough: the vines were loose enough for Takuya to leap free of Dependensu's hold, and he was already running for them.

"Tomoki, stay with me!" he shouted, then leapt forward, grabbing Modesuti around the waist and yanking her away. She screeched as they hit the ground hard, and lashed out to slap him, but he just ducked his head and kept rolling until he landed on all fours over her. "Tomoki!" he yelled, and dodged her nails before responding with a punch. Her head snapped back under the force, and he scrambled up and over to Tomoki. "Come on, up!"

"Ta…" Tomoki slowly blinked his eyes open again, staring up at him blearily. "Takuya…?"

"Up!" he yelled, and then spun around to kick Dependensu's vines away from them. "Tomoki, get up! We've gotta move! You back off!" he added to Potensharu, throwing a wild punch to ward him away.

The haato scowled and threw out his hand, a long, silver dagger appearing from nowhere. He twirled it through his fingers as he raised it, and Takuya clenched his teeth, hauling Tomoki's arm up. "Dammit, hero, you don't drop out on me now!"

"Hero…?" Tomoki mumbled, but he managed to stagger to his feet, furrowing his brow as Takuya shoved him forward a step. "Justice's… hero…?"

"That's right!" snapped Takuya. "You have to stay alive to fight the bullies, remember?"

"Right…" he breathed, then gasped as Takuya suddenly shoved him down, using his back as a balance in another roundhouse kick to keep the haato back. The movement made his head spin, but when he was yanked upright again, it made him take several steps to keep on his feet. The start got him moving, and he began a stumbling trot away from the fight. "Takuya –"

"I'm behind you!" he shouted, but Tomoki couldn't see him; just flashes of black and red through the vines. But then Potensharu suddenly swore, and Takuya dove out of the trees, flipping to a halt beside him with a glare. "I said _move_, hero!"

"Right!" he yelped, and they immediately broke into another run, only pausing when Tomoki had to climb through the branches and Takuya fought off Dependensu's reaching vines. He tried not to look around—he knew it only slowed them down—but he couldn't help glancing at Takuya whenever they had to pause. His head was spinning, and he was scared, and Takuya didn't seem positive of what he was doing.

"Where are we going?" he gasped, when Takuya caught up to him again after another pause. "What are we doing?"

Takuya's teeth clenched, but when he looked around it was with a grimacing smile. "We're running." His eyes flickered back to the front, then widened as Tomoki watched. He glanced behind them, then suddenly put on a burst of speed that took him away and out of Tomoki's sight. "Just follow me!"

But then something grabbed his ankle, and Tomoki blacked out as he hit the ground.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	14. Modest Potential and Dependency

_**Rebooted – Chapter Thirteen**_

Modest Potential and Dependency

**TRUFAX:** I have to give Frontier props in that for a kids' show it was usually subtle about its character themes. But Tomoki, being the kid-relation character, was a little blatant in his bullying issues. But hey, it meant we got the dark Hero of Justice, so whatever, right?

* * *

><p>Although the first time he had seen the digital world it had been torn apart and crumbling, Takuya had long had a vision of the complete world in his head. It was beautiful. An amazing place where anything was possible.<p>

Here, trains could talk, and give you life lessons. Here, beauty was about the inside, because anything could be sentient. Here, cities were grown out of everything from fire to pure light. And no one, Takuya knew, could appreciate that the way he could.

So even though he was running at full speed, trees flashing past him faster than he should have been able to move, he still kept an eye out. And when he saw it, he didn't fall over from shock, but instead skidded to a halt with a triumphant yell.

He had known there had to be a tree with tools imbedded in the bark _some_where.

"I love this world," he panted, and snatched a well-cared for shovel from its branch. Weapons weren't really his style, but in a human body, he didn't have a whole heap of defence against creatures like the haato. He held up the shovel, admiring the sharp edge in the light. "It's a beautiful thing, isn't it, Tomoki?"

When there was no answer, he frowned and turned; suddenly realising he hadn't heard Tomoki behind him for several minutes. He blinked, and then swore as it hit him. "I lost him!"

"That's not all you're going to lose!" Potensharu yelled, bursting through the leaves with daggers drawn.

* * *

><p>The door slid open with a push of air, and Mokuba looked up from his monitor, smiling when he saw Yuugi step through the door, Yami a step behind with several boxes of pizza in hand.<p>

"Hey, guys. Honda said you two had taken the day off."

"Mm, but we got hungry, and when I take a day off, I don't cook," Yuugi explained, walking over to join him at the monitoring station. Yami tossed the pizzas on a free part of the bench and then wandered over to inspect the virtual reality pods, leaving Yuugi to grab a slice from the topmost box and sit down. "We figured we'd stop by and see how the kids are doing."

"Well, they figured out how to use the communicator this morning, and said they're going to be in there a while," he said, and then stood up to check out the pizzas. One was covered in extremely greasy cheese, and so Mokuba grabbed its box, knowing Yami wouldn't mind if that one was stolen. "I sped up the file to make it easier on us, but… To be honest, I'm really glad you guys showed up."

Yuugi frowned at him, and he gestured to the monitor he'd been watching. "You remember yesterday, Takuya's data went haywire, and he kept switching between human and digimon? We realised it was because he was tangling with one of the viruses infecting the system?"

He slowly nodded. "And he beat it, which is why Seto could sleep last night rather than keep fighting the hacker."

"Yeah, well… not only do I think it's happening again, with… Tomoki, from the look of it… but I traced the virus signature. I thought it might be something that evolved with UAI, but it's actually something that was always on the system. I can't read what the file used to be – it's morphed too much. But I know that this 'virus', whatever it is, has been there ever since the file was first deleted," he said, and paused to take a large bite of pizza, chewing slowly as he considered. "It's always existed. Up until now, the rest of the file has managed to keep it in check. But ever since these kids got into it, five years ago, the virus has been morphing faster than the program."

"The kids changed the program?" Yami surmised, pausing by Takuya's pod to look down at him. "They messed up the computer's balance, connected everything to the real world, and set the virus loose. Is that what you're saying?"

"Basically, yeah," he said, and then leaned back in his chair, gazing at the flashing data. "I think the hacker Big Brother's fighting is just this program, trying to access the real world."

Yuugi sighed, biting down on his second slice of pizza. He chewed for a moment, then frowned and swallowed hard to speak. "But Takuya-kun destroyed part of the virus yesterday. Doesn't that mean they can fix it, too?"

"Obviously," Mokuba said, frowning. "But the problem is that when they 'fight' parts of the virus, they're at risk of infection themselves."

"So?" Yami asked blankly, then rolled his eyes and shrugged when Yuugi glanced at him. "Of course it's a bad thing, but we can fix it."

"But that's the thing: we can't. If the virus beats one of the kids, it infects them. It eats them. _They_ become part of the virus."

"Mokuba," he said irritably, setting a hand on his hip. "I don't care about computers. I don't bother understanding them. You call it a virus, and I think there must be antibiotics. What's the problem?"

"The problem is that there are no antibiotics!" he cried, waving a slice of pizza in gesture. "Viruses can't be healed! Once a program has been corrupted—really, properly corrupted—by a virus, it ceases to function. It can only be deleted, and then rebuilt. And since this is a human mind… rebuilding isn't really an option."

"You mean they'll really be dead," Yuugi murmured, and Mokuba shrugged, trying for flippancy.

"It's only their minds. But yeah, they'll be a vegetable," he said, but he couldn't quite manage the disregard for human life his brother was infamous for. The muscles around his eyes still twitched as he stared at the rapidly flashing monitor. "I suppose the correct word for it would be deleted."

* * *

><p>Tomoki was jerked back to consciousness by a heavy weight on his back, pushing his hip down onto something sharp. He whimpered, and a strong hand shoved his face into the dirt.<p>

"The digihuman might have gotten away, but I am too powerful to break promises! Dependensu wants your core, and by my own grace I will give it to her!" Modesuti's voice hissed, and he felt her long nails curving into the back of his neck.

He gritted his teeth, struggling to keep back tears. "Big Brother Takuya… help me…"

"Stop it!" she snarled, and hunched over to whisper into his ear. "Stop your whining, child."

She paused at a slithering noise, and then hummed in her throat, pulling back just enough to yank him up from the waist. He gasped, his hands shooting out to support himself, but Modesuti's grip on his collar was so tight that he almost didn't need to. He whimpered again, and she yanked him back, forcing his eyes open in a flash of pain.

"Look up at Dependensu, child. I'll let you live so long to understand your deletion," she growled, and then sat on the back of his thighs, holding him so all he could see was the plant-like wall of Dependensu. "She's a pitiable creature. She can't speak to communicate. She has no expression. No thoughts that we can tell. She needs a host like me to support her. She feeds on my love and attention… she could not live without it. Though, of course, none would refuse _my_ attention, so it is not that strange."

Tomoki shuddered as her lips brushed his ear, and he clenched his eyes shut. "Takuya… Kouji, Izumi, someone…"

"Stop it!" she ordered, and a green whip lashed out to slap him across the face. He cried out, but couldn't turn his head away as it hit him again. He felt the skin break on his cheek and sobbed in pain, then again when Modesuti turned her face into the wound. "I said it. I said it before… stop calling out to others. Stop relying on others. Worry about yourself. As hopeless as it all is, for even if you escaped Dependensu, I am too powerful to let you go. As ineffectual as you will be, you must try to save yourself, because no one else will do it for you, understand?"

"Takuya –"

"The digihuman will be dead in moments," she murmured, her words almost a kiss against his skin. "You see, I had planned this to not take long. That is why Potensharu came, because he likes to get things over with. Puraido would extend the torture, but that drives Potensharu insane. So he will do the job. He will destroy the digihuman because otherwise, we will be here for weeks. We will just keep working and fighting and you are all not worth our time. Understand?"

He kept his eyes closed as something thick and round slid past his neck, but he reached up with one hand to grab it and keep it away from his throat. Even that didn't work, though, as it just continued wrapping around his hand as well. His knuckles pushed against his throat, and he choked, but couldn't move away.

Modesuti chuckled and stood up, and he was instead held up by the vine around his neck, slowly pulling him up and off the ground.

"You, my snowflake, are going to die. You are doing to die because your core will give Dependensu the will… the communication… the drive to live alone. To live free. You deserve your death because… you're just so pathetic," she said simply, and then laughed breathlessly, like she couldn't believe it. "But… well, I think about it, and if I were to die, I would want to grace the world with my beautiful voice as long as possible. So… in consideration of what would be my wishes, I allow you to continue your pitiful and disgusting ways. Scream for help, snowflake. Cry about how useless you are on your own. Beg your friends to come help you. Earn your death, snowflake. Because you certainly haven't earned the right to live."

* * *

><p>"Where are we going?" Junpei demanded. "What if those digimon we left back there are running off to tell the haato we're here?"<p>

"They don't want to help the haato," Kouji snapped. "They only attacked us because they were scared. They know we're going to attack the haato, and I don't think they're going to try and stop us."

"Then I repeat: where are we going? I don't even see a path anymore!"

Kouji grit his teeth and spun around, staff half-raised in threat. "Junpei –!" He cut himself off, then took a deep breath and let it out, trying to remember all the reasons he didn't want to hurt his friend. "We are going to find Takuya and Tomoki. Once we have, we're going to find the haato. And then we're going to destroy them. Is that alright with you, or do you have something about that to complain about, too?"

"Kouji…" Izumi sighed, and he clenched his jaw to keep from snapping at her too. In the end, he just turned around to keep going, but hadn't even lifted his foot before the leaves in front of him suddenly exploded.

He yelled, falling back, but whatever it was just shot past him and over all their heads, making them turn around on instinct. The projectile spun in mid-air, wings unfolding as it screeched to a halt and came back in front of them, resolving itself into Pipismon. "The haato are evil creatures," it said urgently, flapping hard to stay airborne. "They hate the legendary warriors and never leave human-types alive."

They stared up at it, nonplussed, before Izumi gasped. "It saw Haato!"

"Takuya and Tomoki were following Pipismon before!" Kouichi cried, and then reached up to snatch Pipismon out of the air. "Where are they? Where'd you leave them?"

"Where are we going?" it asked, and then wiggled its way from his hands and flew back through the trees, not even waiting to see if they followed.

* * *

><p>It was strange to think it, but it had never really occurred to Tomoki that he could die.<p>

He felt tears sliding down his cheeks, but couldn't move to brush them away. Dependensu's tentacles were crushing him ever tighter, and he could feel his own knuckles pushing against his windpipe. All he could see was a blur of white and green.

He was dying.

The thought was… terrifying. Now that he had realised he could, he was horrified to remember how close he had been to this before. His first time in the digital world, he had been too young to really appreciate what death meant. He had known, in the most basic terms, that people died, and they didn't come back. But no matter how… how close he came to dying, it had just never occurred to him that he could.

Thinking back on it, he wondered why. Kouichi had, after all, been technically dead all through their adventures. And that time when Takuya was fighting Merecuremon, Tomoki had seen it. He had seen each hit, heard the bones breaking, and remembering it, Tomoki knew Takuya had almost died there.

But he'd never thought about it.

_Slow it down, I can't work that fast!_

He wanted to close his eyes. He needed to blink, and he felt like keeping his eyes open was a waste of energy anyway. But he couldn't. They were stuck open, twitching under the lack of air.

_Stay with me! I know you're stronger than this!_

He could hear voices. Voices that couldn't have been in the digital world. Yuugi… and Yami, before. Did that mean he was dying in the real world, too? But that meant he wouldn't ever see his family again. He'd never get to apologise for worrying them all these years.

_We don't know what it'll do in the long term._

He wanted to apologise. He wanted to go to middle school, and be a good student. He wanted to kiss a girl that wasn't Izumi or his mother. He wanted to grow up.

_It's the only option we've got. Do it!_

But… no. It was too hard. And what could he do anyway? He couldn't move. His own hand was killing him. And he'd never been any use in a fight, anyway. It was the others that did all the hard work. He just followed. He just helped.

And they weren't there to save him, this time.

_Please, Tomoki-kun, don't –_

* * *

><p>Kouji flinched, his staff almost slipping from his fingers until he stopped running and caught it again. Izumi and Junpei only glanced back as they passed him, intent on following Pipismon, but Kouichi slid to a stop beside him.<p>

"What is it?"

Kouji furrowed his brow, wondering at the icy chill that had cut through his head for that barest second. "Tomoki…?"

"What?" asked Kouichi, and Kouji blinked, suddenly realising he had stopped.

"I… I don't know," he said, and touched his forehead in confusion. "I just –"

A familiar shout cut through the quiet, and they both spun around, Kouji taking an instinctive step toward it. "Takuya!"

But nothing followed it, and they exchanged a quick glance of silent communication. Kouichi nodded, and Kouji led the way, lifting his staff as it began to shine. Izumi could handle anything as well as Kouji, right now, so she and Junpei would be fine to follow Pipismon. Takuya, however, was in danger now.

"Stay still!"

"That's my line!"

The further they ran, the easier it was to see the fight through the trees. Takuya, armed with what looked suspiciously like a shovel, was facing off against a white and silver blur. Kouji's staff flared with light, and he swung it up onto his arm midstride.

"Takuya!" he yelled, "Out of the way!"

There was no possible way for Takuya to have seen them yet, but he still leapt straight upward, leaving Kouji a clear shot to his opponent.

"_Licht Kugel_!"

The laser exploded outward, but whatever it was had already dodged, and as the twins rushed into the clearing, the blur resolved itself into a pale young man. He skidded to a stop on the other side of the clearing, panting hard, and Kouji looked up at the leaves above them. Takuya was clinging to a branch with one arm and leg, the other hand holding a shovel close to his chest.

"Hey guys," Takuya said, and Kouichi managed a broken laugh.

"Nice jump."

"You should see me when I'm trying," he replied, and Kouji growled, still keeping a steady eye on the bad guy.

"Stop acting like you're normal and tell us what the hell is going on here!"

Takuya shot him a quick look, and then dropped back down beside them, pointing to a tree on the other side of the clearing. "Kouichi, that tree has gardening tools on the other side of it. Grab one and join the party."

"You're using a shovel as a weapon?" Kouji cried, but he couldn't add to it as the strange man suddenly came rushing toward them, two daggers flashing in threat. Crying out in shock, Kouji just managed to parry one, and Takuya brought the shovel up in front of his face to catch the other. He struggled against the man's strength for a second, and then yelled out as he managed to push the dagger back. The movement made the man grunt and stumble away, leaving the boys time to lean back against each other, bringing their weapons to the ready.

"No, I'm mainly using it as a shield," Takuya panted. "Allow me to introduce one of the three haato we have to deal with today. This is Potensharu. He's damn fast."

"Not fast enough!" Potensharu yelled, and he lunged forward again, now focussed on Kouji alone. He managed to get his staff up in time to block the daggers, and then ducked so Takuya could swing his shovel around and slam it into the haato's face. It hit hard enough to send him sprawling, and he groaned, struggling to push himself up again.

"You said three?" Kouji murmured in the meantime, and Takuya nodded.

"I think Tomoki might be fighting the other two. Modesuti and Dependensu."

He swore, and then glanced over his shoulder to Kouichi. "Go hide."

"I'm not leaving –"

"Kouichi!"

They glared at each other for a moment, before Kouichi grit his teeth and hurried back under cover of the trees. He didn't like it, but as a human, he was nothing more than a liability when Kouji was fighting. He scowled, his fists twisting in frustration. He hated this. He hated being weak. He hated being useless. So what if he was just a weak human? So was Takuya, and he got to be in there, fighting with nothing but a…

He blinked.

Back in the clearing, Kouji left only a trail of light as he brought his staff down to the place Potensharu had been only a second before, but the haato had already leapt out and over Kouji's head.

"On your back!" Takuya called, and they both swung their weapons to catch Potensharu on the drop. But the haato was too fast, and balanced on Takuya's spade for a split second before flipping off again, his daggers shooting out to misdirect Kouji's staff into a tree. It sliced into the wood and he grunted, struggling to pull it free while Potensharu turned to face Takuya.

"You think I'm too fast, don't you? I'm not. I just don't waste time waiting for the perfect moment!" he shouted, and Takuya yelled, pulling his shovel up to catch the daggers as they thrust toward his face. He fell back into the dirt and only just managed to catch Potensharu's stomach with his boot, keeping them both off balance but not gaining any leverage from it. The haato snarled, working all his advantage of gravity against Takuya's brute strength and shovel, but they were equally matched, and Potensharu yelled in frustration before pushing himself off and dancing away. Kouji finally managed to wrench his staff free and spun around, but Potensharu was on the other side of the clearing, yelling wildly.

"Why must _I_ waste my time on you?" he demanded. "I have my core, I found it years ago! I don't need to deal with you!"

Takuya rolled back to his feet beside Kouji, and they exchanged glances before looking back at the haato. "You don't have to," he pointed out. "We're quite happy to not fight you, you know."

"But then I have to wait! I can't go until they all have it! And Torasuto and… and that damn Serufu…!" He yelled out again in frustration and flung one dagger at Kouji's head, only missing because Takuya yanked them both out of the way. "I won't wait any longer!" he screamed, and ran forward again.

* * *

><p>A very faint breeze jerked Modesuti's head around, and her eyes narrowed for an instant before she held up her hand. "Dependensu."<p>

It paused its gratifying squeeze, then twisted around to stare at her. It was almost done. It would have the core in seconds. Her head snapped around again as she glared. "I don't care how close you are! Am I not more important?"

It twisted back toward the cocoon of vines that it had almost completed, then back to her. Its meaning was clear, and she scowled. "If you do not drop that insignificant creature right now, I will never allow you in my presence again, do you understand me?" She watched it flinch, and then smirked as it obediently released the limp once-warrior. The figure flopped to the ground and didn't move, so Dependensu reluctantly turned to face her again, knowing it would at least be there when it came back. She nodded approvingly and turned, starting off into the trees. "We have to make the wench pay for what she did, and she's nearby. If you behave, I'll even let you kill the fat one. How does that sound?"

It hesitated, glancing back at its prey, then slumped down and began to follow, but they hadn't moved three steps before something shot out of the leaves in front of them.

"It saw Haato!" the pipismon cried, hovering over them for a second before disappearing back into the leaves. Modesuti stared after it, nonplussed for a second, but grinned as two more figures followed it out of the trees.

The girl froze with a small cry, but the young man just grabbed her arms and pulled her behind him.

"I'll protect you, Izumi-chan!"

"I'm the one with the powers, you idiot!" she cried, but still squealed and ducked down behind him as Dependensu's vines lashed out at the air in front of them.

"Oh, why look at this," Modesuti purred, setting her hand on her hip. "A filthy little girl hiding behind her big, fat insect."

They both flinched at the insults, before Izumi reared up with her fist raised. "Hey, that's no way to talk about Junpei! Who the heck are you, anyway?"

"Yeah!" Junpei added. "And where are our friends?"

She just smirked and stepped aside to show Tomoki's limp body, and then moaned in pleasure at Izumi's scream. "Oh, I like the sound of that. Dependensu, did you notice? All they care about is their friends, not themselves. Especially the fat insect."

Dependensu shuddered in anger, and its vines shot forward, grabbing Junpei by all four limbs and slamming him into the trees. Izumi screamed again, stumbling backward, and Modesuti didn't bother waiting for her to recover. She laughed and leapt forward, and the girl barely had time to notice.

"Ah! I mean – Brezza –!"

"Too slow!" she cried, and grabbed Izumi's throat before slamming her against the tree behind her, and then down into the dirt at its base. "Writhe, you worm! Just try to get loose!"

"Izumi!" Junpei cried, but he hadn't even managed to get back to his feet before Dependensu's vines lashed towards him again.

"_Brezza Petalo_!" Izumi cried, flinging out her hand, and the whirlwind whipped the tentacles back, slamming into Dependensu with enough force to mould them back into the green of its body. It curled in on itself, twisting toward Modesuti, and she slammed Izumi down again in irritation.

"_I_ am your opponent, you filth!" she shouted, and Junpei yelled again.

"Hold on!" He ran for her, only to trip as another vine lashed out against his leg. He dropped onto his stomach, and then yelped as something whipped against his back. He managed to roll over, only to roll back as he saw the vines shooting toward him. They whacked against him, but the heavy denim of his clothes kept most of the pain away, and he managed to scramble up onto his feet and start running.

Izumi hadn't really intended it, but a blind kick caught Modesuti in the shin, forcing her to rear back on instinct, just enough for Izumi to pull her legs up near her chest. "Tornado Kick!" she cried, but the strength that had powered her physical attacks didn't come. She kicked out, but her boots just pushed up into Modesuti's stomach, and then bent back toward her as the muscles they rested on flexed.

"Uhh… uhm," she whimpered, and then curled in further and screamed. "_Kouji_!"

"Ah, there it is!" Modesuti shouted, and then lashed out with an open hand, her nails scraping over the thick sleeves of Izumi's borrowed coat. "The poor little damsel that is too sweet and good to save her own hide, calls for a prince that doesn't care!"

She tried to call for help, but Modesuti's other hand slammed between her arms to cover her mouth, and then squeezed, so the only noise she could make was a muffled squeak.

"You weak, insignificant trash," the haato hissed, her nails curling to cut into Izumi's skin. "How can you win when all you can think about is how you look and act?"

"Izumi! Leave her alone!" Junpei cried, but every time he tried to move toward her, Dependensu's vines cut him off. He dodged a stabbing shoot and then tried to duck under it to get to her, but was quickly caught around the waist and thrown back against a tree. He hit hard and dropped, slumping to the dirt below with a dazed groan.

Izumi tried to yell for him, but Modesuti's hand only closed tighter, so all she could do was sob and clench her eyes shut while the haato leaned in closer.

"You listen to me, filth. I give you an honour by letting you live so long in my presence, and you so will listen to me!" she shouted, shoving Izumi's head back into the dirt. "We are Haato. I am Modesuti! I am too great for this sickening world of human waste! I will not be tethered by your existence!"

She let go of Izumi as if she had just realised she was carrying something disgusting and stood up, but Izumi didn't try to run away. Modesuti slammed one foot down on her shins, and the girl screamed as the stiletto heel dug through her boot.

"Puraido… he claims we were born from your mistakes, and that is why we need your cores to leave this… this sewer," she hissed, not even looking as she ground her heel further in. "But I know that can't be right! I am too great for that! I am not the product of your puny, disgusting existence! I am a goddess, and it is only because I wish it that I use your core to escape!"

Izumi sobbed out another breath, rolling onto her side, but all that gave her was the sight of Junpei, lying unconscious only a few metres away. She tried to reach out, but Dependensu's vine slapped down on her hand and she pulled it back toward herself.

"The digimon… they worship you and I can't by my own grace understand why. The beautiful Fairymon is a moth! The elegant Shutsumon is a mockery of my honour! You're not even powerful!" Modesuti screamed, slamming her boot down again. "You are just a disgusting human, made of disgusting human waste, and you will _not_—" She kicked down in a new position, and Izumi's nails bit into her palms to keep herself from screaming. "—deny me my life!"

* * *

><p>The staff and shovel went clattering across the clearing as Kouji tackled Takuya between two roots, and they hit hard, slamming against the dirt and each other. After a second, Kouji opened his eyes to look down at Takuya, who raised his eyebrows in response.<p>

"Think we're pissing him off?" he panted, and Kouji nodded, before Takuya suddenly flinched and yanked him down close so that a thrown dagger could sail over his shoulders.

It slammed into the root behind them, and he slumped back against the dirt, while Kouji pressed closer to his chest, as if that would hide them better. "Okay… we've lost our weapons. He's almost as fast as Garmamon used to be. I have no idea where Kouichi is. We need a strategy."

Takuya nodded, and then rolled Kouji off his chest so he could peer over their root. Potensharu was fast, but he clearly didn't have their stamina, because he was standing slumped in the middle of the clearing, panting hard as he glared through a curtain of matted hair.

"We have to attack soon," Kouji murmured, creeping up beside him. "If this battle doesn't end soon, he's going to decide we're not worth the time he's putting in."

"Right," he agreed, then took a breath and looked around at him. "So here's the plan. I go out there and grab his attention. You grab your staff, creep up behind him, and then light-sword him. Okay?"

"No!" he snapped, shifting to glare at him as well. "You're not nearly fast enough to avoid his attacks!"

"You're better at being quiet than I am!" he hissed.

"Maybe, but if you go out there on your own, you're going to get hurt!"

"Better I get hurt and you kill him than we try it the other way around and he kills us both!"

"Don't you pull the martyr on me!"

"I –!"

"When you two are finished!" Potensharu yelled, suddenly appearing above them with daggers raised. "I'm tired of you!"

Takuya cried out and lunged forward, knocking Kouji over and flipping past him to land on all fours on the other side. The dagger sliced through the air, quickly followed by another that Kouji had to roll to avoid.

"All you two do is talk and disagree, it's maddening!" he shouted, lunging for Takuya, who jumped straight up to a branch twice his height above him. He swung back and threw out his leg on the return, but Potensharu easily parried the kick with his daggers, shoving him away in time to push Kouji's attempted tackle aside. Takuya was already swinging up and over the branch for another attack, but the haato managed to dodge so Takuya ended up on all fours in front of him. "You waste so much time arguing when it is blatantly obvious you want the exact same thing!"

"Yeah, to beat you!" Takuya shouted, and he flipped up to try a full roundhouse kick, but Potensharu was no longer there, and Kouji had to skid out of the way of a slashing dagger. Takuya kicked at him again and managed to knock one of the daggers out of his hand, then cried out as the other immediately slashed at his leg, just above the boot. He fell back, gritting his teeth in what he hoped was a wild grin as he glared out from under his eyebrows. "So why can't you just make us all happy and lose, already?"

"Because you two are an inefficient part of the universe that must be downsized!" Potensharu shouted, but his aim for Takuya's chest was stopped as Kouji rammed into him, knocking him into the bushes before running for his staff.

Takuya had managed to clamber back to his feet by the time he got back, and they glared at each other for getting injured.

"This isn't working," Kouji ground out, and Takuya grit his teeth to keep from swearing.

"If you had just agreed to the plan –"

"It was a dumb plan!"

"It was _a_ plan!"

"Shut up!" Potensharu roared, exploding out of the bushes with both daggers thrown. The boys managed to dodge, Takuya jumping up into the branches of the tree and Kouji flipping backward, but they weren't given time to recover. Kouji got back to his feet only to be slammed into the tree, so all he could see were Potensharu's wild blue eyes.

"No running," the haato hissed, and one of the daggers slammed into the tree at Kouji's hip, slicing the material there. The blade jerked against his skin and Kouji tensed, waiting for the pain, but it never came. He hesitated, then opened eyes he didn't remember closing, and looked into Potensharu's eyes again.

They were wide and blank. And glowing. Even the whites were a bright, light blue.

"Not from _Ewig Schlaf_, no," a dark voice stated, and Kouji shoved back into his tree as the data exploded in front of him, streaming up and around past the pitchfork now pointing at Kouji's chest. He blinked rapidly, then gaped at Kouichi, who just smiled grimly and stood up straight.

"I thought it was a good plan, myself," he said, as the data finished streaming into his pocket.

Kouji blinked again, then shook his head hard and looked around. "Where the hell did you –?"

"That over there," he said, pointing to the huge tree Takuya had pointed out at the beginning of the fight. "There's a bunch of farming and gardening tools in its bark. I figured that if you could make your light sabre out of an old staff, and Takuya was fighting with a shovel, me picking out a pitchfork for Lowemon's trident spear wasn't so strange."

Takuya dropped out of the tree behind him, staring just as blankly as Kouji. They exchanged glances, then looked back at Kouichi, who scowled and set his pitchfork in the dirt.

"I may not be much in the real world, but here, I'm Darkness. And that can conquer anyone," he said firmly, and Kouji nodded dumbly.

"Alright."

"I'm the big brother, remember? _I'm_ supposed to protect _you_," he snapped, and Kouji nodded again.

"I get that."

"So you don't get to order me out of the fight again, understand?"

His head jerked, and Kouichi glared, not fooled for a second. Takuya looked between them for a moment, then snorted and slung his arm over Kouichi's shoulder. "Alright, so… how about we go put some of that dark power to good use and save our friends, huh?"

* * *

><p>He had eyelids.<p>

That was… satisfactory. He needed eyelids to have eyes. He needed eyes.

He wasn't sure what for, but he liked the idea. So he opened them slowly, ignoring the fact that all he could see was a blur.

There was pain. But that was fine. Pain was a part of existence. Pain was a motivator. Pain was what he would give those who had done him wrong.

_No! Dammit, it's gone too far!_

"I'll make you suffer! You don't deserve to live, you insignificant tramp!"

_Tomoki-kun, listen to me! You're not thinking straight! Listen!_

He frowned, tilting his head at the buzzing in his ears. Inside, he could hear a warm voice screaming at him. Outside, he could hear one screaming at something else. Insulting something else. Hurting something else.

Bullying.

_The Darkness got you breathing again, but it's too strong! You've got to fight it!_

He flexed his aching hand, and then closed it around a ball of cold air that formed between his fingers. He used the other hand to slowly push himself upward, glaring at the blur in his eyes.

"I won't forgive it," he whispered, falling back on his knees. "I won't forgive any bullying."

The buzzing suddenly stopped. Inside his head, the warm voice was still yelling, but it was too bright. He cracked his neck, and the noise was a good enough distraction for him to instead focus on the yelling outside his skull. He finished climbing to his feet and lifted his head, turning to face where it had last been.

He couldn't see properly yet, but he didn't have to. There were two bullies – one white, one green. Two victims, lying broken on the ground. He didn't know why, but he was angrier at the green one. He would rip it apart first.

"I am the hero of justice," he murmured. "I won't forgive you."

"Tomo… ki…" a familiar voice breathed, and his eye twitched in memory.

"_Kachi-kachi_," he whispered, and then drew in a deep breath and ran forward. "_Kochin_!"

"What?" Modesuti spun around, but it was too late. Icy breath blasted over the vines, and Dependensu shrank backward as its limbs froze in an instant. It slid away, but Tomoki just followed it with a running leap, latching onto the closest thing Dependensu had for a neck.

"No! Dependensu, get it off you!" she screamed, but the frozen vines could only flail as Tomoki slammed his fist into its head.

"I am the hero of justice!" he yelled wildly, and then held up his fist as ice formed around it, out into a sharp, pointed blade. "I won't forgive any bullying! _Tsurararara_!"

The knife cut through the frozen vines in one smooth swipe, slicing Dependensu in two, but Tomoki didn't so much as pause. He leapt up, drawing in another deep breath and blasting out the ice-cold air to freeze the two halves, and then came crashing down with his heavy boot outstretched. The whole creature exploded in a shower of ice, which burst up and into a shining stream of data.

"No! She's mine!" Modesuti yelled, but Tomoki barely noticed her. He dropped back to the ground as the data slid into a ball in his hand, slowly forming something solid. She stumbled back as it remorphed into an object, but Tomoki smiled, turning to look at her with dead eyes.

"Now who's afraid…?"

On the ground, Junpei slowly pushed himself up onto his elbows, staring in disbelief as Tomoki lifted his reformed digivice, the symbol of ice and Chakmon's spirit flashing clear. "Tomoki… how…?"

"You vile creature!" Modesuti cried. "We killed you! You were all but dead! How dare you –"

"You didn't kill me," Tomoki murmured. "Heroes are eternal. Justice is invincible. I am a hero of justice, and I will deal out my penalty games."

She barked out what could have been a laugh if not for her expression, kicking Izumi out of her way. "Ohh, you're one of those, are you? Like Hiisutori. Champion of the wrongly defeated, are you?"

"You're a bully," he growled. "I don't forgive bullying."

"I am not a bully, I am a goddess!" she cried. "What I do here is righteous punishment and revenge! I have been wronged!"

He just glared at her, his eyes only just clear enough to make out her figure. "Bully."

"_I_ am the one who has been raised in the shadow of this insignificant, unworthy _tramp_! I am the one constantly mocked by those who would worship her! Her! Who shies away from praise in the name of 'feminine modesty'! I am the one wronged, for my entire existence!"

"Tomoki," Junpei whispered, pulling himself up a tree to his feet. "Tomoki, what's wrong with you?"

He didn't answer, but held out his digivice instead, a data ring flaring around his hand. "Penalty Game," he breathed, and then pushed his data to the scanner. "_Spirit Evolution_!"

"No!" Modesuti screamed, lunging forward, but the data had already enveloped Tomoki's body. By the time she reached him, Chakmon had leapt up out of the glowing ball and was aiming his blaster.

"_Snow Bomber_!"

* * *

><p>Takuya shuddered as his entire body prickled with cold, but he didn't stop running, shoving branches and leaves out of his way without even glancing back to make sure the twins were behind him. He could sense Kouji's staff slicing through branches to clear his way, and knew Kouichi couldn't be far behind. Besides, <em>they<em> were fine. His all-but-brother's spirit was screaming in agony.

"Do you even know where we're going?" Kouichi yelled. "I can barely see back here!"

"We're going towards Tomoki!" he shouted back. He didn't know how he knew – he never knew how he could control any of his digital senses. But he knew Tomoki was in serious danger. "Can't you feel the cold?"

"I think we're close!" Kouji said, and Takuya glanced around as he dashed up beside him, sabre flashing in the dim sunlight. "I can hear the fight!"

"You're both crazy," they heard Kouichi mutter, but he didn't pause, and it wasn't long before they caught sight of the fight Kouji could hear. Kouichi gasped, stumbling to a stop as he stared through the trees. "That's Chakmon!"

"How'd he evolve?" Kouji demanded as he and Takuya skirted the last few trees, but even when they burst out near the fight, no one noticed them to answer. Modesuti was screaming in frustration as she fended off the dozens of icy snowballs shooting toward her, and Junpei was kneeling over Izumi as he gaped at the small, white bear currently toting a gun half his size and blasting his opponent with deadly snowballs – the Human Spirit of Ice: Chakmon. Kouji swore, rushing over to join Junpei. "What happened?"

He flinched, staring at him, then looked back down at Izumi. "She – that psycho haato beat her up! I… I think she'll be okay, but –"

"Ah, the princes arrive!" Modesuti snarled, glaring at him from the corner of her eye. "The chauvinist and the knight! Come to rescue the poor, wounded damsel!"

"Leave them alone, you bully!" Chakmon yelled, throwing back his blaster as he leapt up into the sky. His body moulded down into an icicle, aimed straight for her heart, but Modesuti only yelled as she caught him with both hands and bodily threw him at Takuya. Still rock-solid ice, Chakmon slammed into Takuya's chest and threw them both back through the trees to land at Kouichi's feet.

"Do not dare to match your strength with mine, snowflake!" she yelled, and spun around to glare at them all. "I am power! I am strength! I do not need powers and weapons to destroy you all!"

"You can't beat all of us, now," Junpei said, hunching over Izumi protectively. "There's five of us and only one of you!"

"I have the strength of ten women!"

Kouji sneered, then stiffened when Modesuti spun to face him.

"You find something amusing, Chauvinist? I have power only a woman of my grandeur could master!"

He hesitated, then slowly stood up, glancing down at Izumi. If she was awake, he was really going to pay for this later. "Maybe," he said, and then lifted his head to give Modesuti a dirty look. "But you're still a woman."

Her hand lashed out, nails gouging skin from his cheek and snapping his head around. He tripped over Izumi with the force and rammed into the tree behind her, but only paused for a moment before pulling himself upright. He swallowed a breath, then looked around for his back up. Takuya was still checking over Chakmon, but Kouichi gripped his pitchfork with a small nod of acknowledgement.

Kouji grimaced, pushing himself off the tree and turning around. "Wow, you hit me. Lucky you did it. It might have hurt, otherwise."

His head cracked against the tree with the force of the next blow, and he choked as Modesuti's hand then clutched at his collar and yanked him off the ground.

"You… creatures like you are the reason that praise is wasted on this stupid wench!" she hissed, kicking uselessly at Izumi's arm. She then twisted her wrist, pulling Kouji's collar across his throat to cut off his air supply. "People like you think women are all the same! Sweet, innocent weaklings that live to humbly serve!"

He cracked one eye open to make sure Kouichi was in place, pitchfork drawn back at the ready, and then glared down at her. "You talk as if you aren't," He hesitated, then curled his lip in distaste, forcing all his issues with every female he knew into the one phrase, "_little girl_."

"You can both die for your impudence!" she screeched, and spun around, tossing Kouji at Kouichi, but he had already jumped aside, thrusting his weapon forward.

"_Ewig Schlaf_!"

She fell back, but too slow, and the trident sparkled with black lightning as it sank an inch into her stomach. She gasped, gripping the outer prongs to yank it out, but it was too late.

Kouji had rolled and grabbed his staff in one smooth movement, and he swung it up onto his arm. Modesuti looked up, and he smirked. "Pathetic," he said, and the light burst forward, slicing into her chest and out the other side. She had time to stare at him in shock, then silently dropped to her knees. She digitised before she hit the ground, and Kouji yanked his digivice from his pocket.

"This spirit of darkness," he recited as the data began streaming toward him. "This light will save!"

The data thudded into his scanner, the light fading as it went, but it was a good five seconds before Kouji lowered his arm, and Kouichi let a breath he didn't know he'd been holding.

"I really didn't think that would work."

"Of course it worked," Kouji sighed, stumbling back to lean on the tree. "All women are obsessed with how men see them."

Kouichi lifted his head to stare at him. "You… what? You didn't mean that stuff."

"No. Of course not." He rolled his eyes, gesturing with his staff. "Your mother would kick my arse."

"If I don't do it, first," Junpei said, glaring at him. "You were way outta line."

"Calm down, Junpei, I was baiting her," he said wearily, but Junpei was cut off before he could retort.

"_I won't forgive you_," Chakmon ground out, and they all flinched, looking around to find him raising his blaster again, aimed through the trees to Kouji's head. "I won't forgive any bullying."

Junpei blinked. "Chakmon, what are you –"

"Insults… that's worse than violence. I won't forgive it," he whispered, and Kouji stood up again, holding his staff out defensively.

"This is…"

"Stop!" Kouichi cried. "That's Kouji, Chakmon, what do you think you're doing?"

Takuya lunged forward, grabbing the warrior around the shoulders to hold him back. "Tomoki! Get a hold of yourself!" he cried, grunting as Chakmon tried to shake him off. "You don't want to hurt him!"

"This is punishment. A penalty game!" Chakmon shouted, and he lifted both hands to aim his blaster for Kouji's chest. "_Snow_ _Bomber_!"

Kouji dodged behind the tree with a shout, the ice pummelling the place he had been. "Guys, do something!"

"Tomoki, wake up!" Takuya yelled, grounding his feet so he could stand up and pull Chakmon from the ground to ruin his aim. "He was in the middle of a battle! She was the enemy!"

"Evil or not, no one should be bullied!"

"Then what are you doing right now?" he yelled, and wrapped his arms tighter around him, ignoring the cold to shout into his ear. "What's the difference, Tomoki? Modesuti threatening the digimon and beating up Izumi; Kouji insulting her; you trying to kill him now? What's the difference?"

"I am the hero of justice. This is justice!"

"Says who?" he demanded. "Kouji's a prick, but he's still a good guy! He fights for what's right! Do you really want to destroy him for being an idiot?"

Kouji twitched, glaring at nothing as he wondered why he liked his best friend, but it seemed to have done something. Chakmon's blaster lowered, and when Kouji peered around the tree, the warrior was no longer looking at him, but staring into space.

"What makes justice, Tomoki?" Takuya asked, lowering him slightly but still holding on. "What's true strength?"

"True strength," he whispered, and Kouji saw the memory flicker in his eyes. "True strength is… knowing when to fight. Never running away, but not always fighting."

"Knowing _why_ to fight," Takuya corrected, and he nodded quietly.

"True strength is…" He blinked once, then twice again, and something like light flickered over his face. "I…"

They all stared at him hopefully for a moment, before the blue light of data suddenly formed around him, and Takuya had to jerk and rearrange his hold to keep from dropping a suddenly larger and heavier human Tomoki. He didn't move straight away, and Takuya slowly let him go, backing off just enough to walk around and check his expression.

There was something strange flickering across his face, and he kept glaring out from under his hat. Takuya bent his head to look up at him. "Tomoki? Are you alright?"

"True strength… Penalty Games… Revenge…" Some of the darkness faded from his eyes, and his eyes flickered down to Takuya's. "Revenge is not justice."

"Right…" he said slowly, then grinned as the last of the strange look faded. "Are you back with us?"

"I…" He blanched, his hand slapping against his mouth. "I'm gonna be sick."

He shoved Takuya away and then ran off into the trees. The others stared after him for a minute, before Takuya hurried after and found him retching behind a tree. He sighed sympathetically and walked over, pulling off Tomoki's hat so he could pet the poor kid's hair.

"Kinda scary to realise what could've been, huh?" he muttered, and then rubbed Tomoki's shoulders. "You gonna be alright?"

"So much hate…" he gasped, his body still convulsing in disgust. "It was all dark. All I could think about was punishing them. Oh, god…"

He threw up again, and Takuya cringed, but didn't move away. He'd stay there as long as it took to make sure his little buddy made it through.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	15. Kouji's Challenge

_**Rebooted – Chapter Fourteen**_

Kouji's Challenge

**TRUFAX: **Izumi's plotline depresses me a little. She discovers, over the course of the series, that to be a strong woman, one must be kind, beautiful, and gentle, because _that_ is true feminine strength. Oh, and also? You can't do anything without other people. I mean, I get what they were going for, and the English version made it a lot less offensive without changing much, but _geez_, guys…

* * *

><p>The slap rang out loudly in the silent room, and the boys all winced in sympathy as Kouji's neck cracked from the force. He blinked hard, clearing the stars from his eyes, and then slowly turned back to meet Izumi's gaze.<p>

"I take it you were conscious, then?"

She slapped him again, and his hand had to shoot out to keep himself steady, but he stayed up. He drummed his fingers against the bed as he waited for his brain to stop bouncing around his skull, and then slowly pushed himself back to face her.

"I just hope you can look your mothers in the eyes when we get home," she snapped, and he bowed his head in the closest he would come to an apology. She continued glaring at him for a moment, and then spun away to face Junpei instead.

Junpei blinked, still holding a bandage up like a shield, but Izumi just thrust out her arm for his care. Kouichi hesitated, and then slowly headed over to sit beside his brother, offering up a weak but not altogether unamused smile.

"Don't tell me I deserved it," Kouji told him sharply, and Kouichi shook his head, his smile broadening despite himself.

By the time Takuya had brought Tomoki back to the group, they had all decided to risk Breeze again, hoping to at least steal some bandages if they weren't welcome. Surprisingly, they had barely stepped into the village before they were bowled over by a wave of cheers and thanks, many Floramon openly weeping in gratitude for the 'Returned Legendary Warriors'. As the digimon had told Izumi and the others that morning, they truly had only attacked because they were threatened by the haato. Now Modesuti was gone, the chosen children were treated to a Hero's welcome home, complete with comfortable lodgings and the promise of a celebratory banquet.

For now, however, they were just spending a few quiet hours recovering, wounds being tended to and stories passed around. After learning how close Tomoki had come to death, Takuya had led him over to a quiet corner and tried to distract him from the day's events by asking how the Duel Mat worked. While effective, it left no one really game enough to moderate between Kouji and Izumi.

Kouji sat in silence for a few seconds, allowing Kouichi to treat the scratches on his cheek, then lurched forward, slamming his fist into the bed, but a sharp cough cut him off before he could say anything. They all turned toward it, and Takuya glanced at Kouji over his shoulder, raising his eyebrows in point.

"What?" he demanded, and Takuya frowned.

"Drop it."

He glared at him silently for a second, then barked out a breath. "We have to talk."

"Later," Takuya said, turning back to Tomoki and the mat.

Kouji rolled his eyes, but didn't pull away when Kouichi started plastering a bandage onto his cheek. The room was quiet for a few minutes, only Takuya and Tomoki's mumbling interrupting the silence, before a light shone from the mat and Takuya cheered in triumph.

"Got it!"

They all looked around as the light flared and spread, down and out into three life-sized, solid vision holograms. At first they were turned away and silent, but then the sound kicked in and Mokuba's voice rang out loud and irritated.

"_I'm telling you, there's nothing to be worried about! I checked his data – it's complete! That's _better _than any of the others_!"

"_You don't know what you're talking about_!" Yami snapped, as Yuugi looked up and began turning toward the teenagers. "_This isn't something that works with technology, it's_ –"

"_Tomoki-kun_!" Yuugi cried, cutting the argument off as he ran forward. "_Are you alright?_"

"_As perfect as I said he'd be_!" Mokuba said, folding his arms, and Yami glared at him.

"_It has nothing to do with what he looks like_."

The group all blinked, and Tomoki stuttered for a moment before he managed to nod. "I – I'm okay. Why do you ask?"

Yuugi stared at him worriedly for a moment, then around at the others. "_Do you all know what happened today_?"

"You mean us getting attacked or Tomoki almost dying?" Takuya asked.

"Thanks for the heads up on that, by the way," Junpei interjected, and then shrank back under Yami's glare.

"_Tomoki-kun didn't_ almost _die_," said Yuugi. "_We aren't sure what happened on your side, but out here, he completely disconnected from his body. We couldn't get any conscious brain activity at all, for almost a minute. We had to resort to Dark magic to keep him alive_."

"What?" Takuya gripped Tomoki's arm almost compulsively. "But he was – I mean, we're in the digital world, and…"

"_The problem wasn't in his body. It was his mind and spirit that made him suffer_," Yami said, but the harshness left his expression at a glance from Yuugi. "_Since there was no one around on your side to bring him back, and we couldn't contact him, we had to use my Darkness to support him until he had recovered enough to make it back on his own_."

"_But it was a last resort – we don't like using Dark magic on people's bodies unless we have to, because it comes with a huge risk_," said Yuugi, and he crouched down close to Tomoki. "_Sometimes, when Darkness extends a person's life and existence, it lays a claim on that person's soul. It takes away their_ –"

"_It leaves you with a slightly altered sense of right and wrong_," Yami interrupted, rolling his shoulders uncomfortably. "_That's all_."

Yuugi stood up again and moved back to stand close by Yami, who smiled and leaned a little further into his side. Turning his back on them, Mokuba coughed and stepped forward instead. "_We couldn't tell, from the data, but Yuugi and Yami thought maybe you had been lost to that… dark… stuff. They were worried._"

Kouji exchanged glances with his brother, and Tomoki lowered his eyes, but Takuya just shifted his grip to wrap a supportive arm around Tomoki's shoulders. "It was a bit scary for a second there, but we're okay now."

"The effects of the Darkness," Kouichi began, making them all look up and around at him. "You make it sound like it's not permanent."

"_Not in a grey soul like Tomoki's_," Yami agreed, then narrowed his eyes. "_If it were you, I would be concerned, but –_"

"Watch it!" snapped Kouji. "Big Brother Kouichi isn't going to hurt anyone!"

"_I didn't say he would_," Yami said coldly, but then sighed when Yuugi leaned into him again. "_Your average human has a balance of light and dark in their soul. Shades of grey recover from trauma like this relatively easily. There are other souls, like yours, your brother's and mine, that are extreme shades. We do not recover so well_."

"_It's more emotional and psychological strain in grey souls_," Yuugi explained. "_Which is why I wanted to make sure you were feeling okay, Tomoki-kun. I know the stuff that can happen under the influence of Darkness can be pretty scary_."

"I'm okay," he murmured. "It's kinda happened before."

The three adults frowned, exchanging glances, but didn't comment. Yami's eyes swept them all, his eyebrow rising in interest. "_You all look a lot better than I would expect after fighting three opponents at once. Congratulations._"

"I don't feel worthy of congratulations," Izumi moaned, holding her stomach, and Junpei nodded.

"We got hit pretty bad."

"_But you made it through,_" Yuugi argued, holding up a finger. "_And what you did today made things much, much better in the real world_."

"How so?"

"_What you fought today were viruses – part of the Trojan that's infecting Kaiba Corporation's systems on this side_," Mokuba explained. "_With each one you defeat, you lower the number of targets Big Brother has to defend against. You've already taken out five major points of attack!_"

"Five… we've defeated five Haato," Kouji murmured.

"_Haato_?"

"What we fought today," Takuya explained. "I guess they're what the viruses are inside the program."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" Kouji cried, pulling away from his brother's ministrations to walk over and stand behind Takuya. "The haato are evil, and destroying this world, so I can understand them being viruses. But they don't seem to have much to do with the real world. They're all after us."

"_What do you mean_?" asked Yuugi, and Takuya shrugged.

"It's hard to explain, but they're after our cores – what's left over when all your data has been taken away. Sometimes it seems like they just want to destroy us completely… they seem to hate us for a bunch of different reasons. But sometimes they talk like our cores help them somehow," he said, and then looked up at Kouji, who nodded.

"Potensharu—one of the haato—said he had already found his core, so he didn't need to bother with us," he said slowly. "He was only fighting us because they need all our cores for something. And it was more inconvenient because two of them had already been destroyed."

Kouichi blinked, pulling his digivice out of his pocket to flick through the screens. His symbol of Darkness appeared, and then a blank screen, before an image of what he vaguely remembered as Aabomon, the Legendary Warrior of Wood, appeared on the screen. He hesitated, staring at it for a moment, but shook his head and put it away again. It meant something, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure out what.

"_Well, if that's the case, it sounds like you guys have another reason to beat these viruses for us_," Mokuba said lightly. "_They're gonna come after you no matter what you do_!"

"Thanks, Kaiba-san," Tomoki said weakly, and he chuckled.

"_I think this is a sign you should all be more careful_," said Yuugi. "_If they're after you, that means they'll use any means necessary to attack. Until these haato are all destroyed, you're at constant risk._"

"_Which means you should stop worrying about turning into digimon_," Yami said firmly. "_The viruses are the bigger risk, to all of us. It's not worth running around trying to save yourselves from the inside if there's something meaner on the outside_."

Takuya frowned, the memory of Agunimon's worried expression flashing in his mind.

"We can do them both at once," Kouji said, stepping forward until he was nearly standing on Takuya's hand. "They're probably connected, and I am not going back home until we're safe and back to normal.

Yuugi blinked at him, and then glanced down at Takuya before lifting his gaze again. "_Don't worry. We won't pull you out until you're ready._" He paused, giving Kouji an oddly understanding smile. "_Everything'll work out. I'm sure of it._"

"I wish I was," Junpei muttered, and Tomoki leaned forward to turn off the disk.

* * *

><p>The others had pulled forward when they finally reached the Forest Terminal, cheerfully introducing Kouichi to the most elusive station in the entire digital world. He didn't seem particularly enthused, but that didn't stop Izumi from chattering about how hard it had been to get there, the first time around.<p>

Not that Takuya could blame either of them. None of them had been feeling what he would call cheerful, since their fight with the three haato. It had taken Tomoki days to fully recover from the attack, a combination of mental stress and physical harm keeping him in bed long after the others were moving freely. Izumi and Kouji had been refusing to speak to each other ever since she slapped him, and Junpei had been keeping quiet, refusing to say what was bothering him. Kouichi was depressed because of his brother's bad mood, and even Pipismon, who had refused to be left behind in Breeze after the attack, was unusually silent.

Takuya sighed, folding his arms behind his head as he watched the group run around. They were all trying to ignore their depression, but he had to admit their situation was beginning to wear on even his spirits. They just had so many problems stacking up, and he honestly didn't know what to do.

First and most important were the haato. It was kind of hard to forget that there were real-world viruses manifested in the digital world as psychos bent on killing them. Adding to that, there were real live monsters running around the real world, wreaking havoc with each second they wasted. Then there was their personal problem of turning into digimon in the real world. They couldn't go home until they fixed it, or they would all be ruled by total instinct and inevitably turn into even more instinctual digimon. Less world-threatening but scarier for that, there was something seriously wrong between Kouji and Izumi. Whenever he asked about it, Izumi would claim Kouji was a misogynist pig, whatever that meant, and Takuya hadn't even bothered trying to ask Kouji.

He raised his eyebrows as the subject of his thoughts fell back to walk beside him, and smiled, nodding toward the others. "Shouldn't you go rescue Kouichi?"

"He seems to think it's about time I accepted my little brother status as the protectee," he said dryly. "He can get out of it on his own. Besides, you've been avoiding me."

He blinked. "I have?"

"I told you days ago that we needed to talk."

"Yeah, but I haven't been avoiding it! I've just had other stuff to do," he cried, wincing at the tiny lie. He'd had more than enough time to track Kouji down and talk to him, but other things, like hanging out with the Floramon while they made him soup, had been much easier. "And it's not like you wanted to talk about anything important, right? Isn't this just about how I told you to drop the thing about Izumi slapping you?"

"That's a part of it," he agreed, and Takuya groaned, rolling his eyes.

"Look, it's not that I think you deserved it, but you gotta admit there were better ways to beat Modesuti," he pointed out. "You could've insulted anything about her with the same results, but you picked on the fact she was female. Not exactly what I'd call a great plan."

Kouji scowled, looking off to the side. "So you are on her side."

"I'm not on anyone's side!" he cried, letting his hands drop. "I know that's not what you really meant, so I don't think Izumi had a right to hit you. But you don't talk about girls much, so she had no idea that you don't really think women can't be strong. Imagine if she'd said guys can't think past their pants. She got defensive, which made her mad. And you know how stubborn she is when she's mad. You couldn't have won the argument."

He didn't answer for a long moment, his jaw working in silence, and Takuya leaned forward to see his face. "You get me?"

"You're the one who doesn't get it."

"I just said –"

"Shut up. I understand the hero urge, Takuya. I like standing up for people too," he said, and they both came to a stop, Kouji lowering his voice so the others wouldn't notice. "But five years ago, Izumi pretty much proved that she's not just a girl. She can stand up for herself."

Takuya blinked, leaning forward as he stared. "Isn't that what I just said about her getting mad?"

"Yeah, but you don't seem to get it. It's like what Kouichi said when he beat Potensharu. They can take care of themselves." He glanced around to make sure the others had moved on, and then stepped into Takuya's personal space, hunching his shoulders so their eyes met. "I understood, back in the real world. She was supposed to be your girlfriend, and guys protect their girlfriends. But that's over with, and you keep doing it, so I can't help thinking –" He stopped himself there, blinking once before continuing. "If you keep acting like this, Junpei is going to catch on."

They stared at each other for a moment, Takuya's lip twitching. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me to back off because…? It's not just about this one thing, is it? There's something else."

"Well, it's been going on for –" He stopped again, leaning away at Takuya's nasty smile. "Why? What do you think it's about?"

"Kouji Minamotou," He drawled the name out, then lost any pretence of seriousness with a snicker. "You're jealous!"

"What?" he cried, stumbling backward. "I am not!"

"Hah!"

"I'm not jealous," he snapped. "Because –"

"Because you know Izumi and I aren't really dating, so you're free to make any move on her that you like. Except that you're chicken," Takuya added, and then squawked, jumping out of the way of Kouji's aimless fist. "What's the matter, scared of Junpei?"

"I do not like Izumi!" he yelled, then flinched and lowered his voice to a harsh whisper. "I'm not jealous, because I don't like Izumi as anything but a friend—"

"Until she apologises for hitting you?" he supplied, then chuckled as he had to dodge another hit.

"—and if I was jealous, it would only be because you, despite claiming to be _my_ best friend, always forget me or treat me like the bad guy when it comes to her," he finished, and Takuya's grin immediately disappeared.

"What?"

"I know," he said, holding up his hand as if to ward off coming insults. "I'm being a girl about this, I know, but it's just… pissing me off."

Takuya winced, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. "I – I hadn't noticed."

"Yeah, I figured that out the first time it happened back in middle school," he snapped, and then sighed and looked away again. "Normally I'd forget about it. But now you aren't her boyfriend and you took her side when _she hit me_. I thought, that time at least, you would –"

He stopped again, turning away, and Takuya's wince turned into a cringe. "Not exactly best friend behaviour, huh?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it," he said, and then let out a heavy breath, shaking his head. "I don't know why it bothers me so much, but it does. And I'm just worried that since we're out here, fighting for our lives every other day, that it's gonna be a problem. I'm starting to think that one of these days I'm gonna fall off a cliff, thinking you're going to be there, and then realise you're too busy shielding Izumi to help me back up."

"I –"

"Is that going to happen?" he demanded, and Takuya lowered his head, looking up at him from under his hair.

It was a cruel question, and they both knew it. Asked any other way, Takuya would have been within his rights to get mad – it wasn't fair to be asked to choose between his friends. But the fact was that in the digital world, they did sometimes find themselves in those situations. Kouji had to know that he could rely on Takuya, or the whole team could end up dead.

But they both knew that wasn't what he was really asking.

"Takuya! Kouji!"

They both jumped as Tomoki suddenly ran back down the path toward them, waving his arm over his head.

"We found the stairwell up to the Citadel!" he called, pausing almost a dozen metres back as he noticed their stance. "Are you guys ready?"

Kouji looked around again, narrowing his eyes in question, but Takuya didn't answer. He just closed his eyes and stepped forward, avoiding the look until he was at a safe distance to start running.

Tomoki paused as Takuya overtook him, glancing back at Kouji warily. "Kouji? Are you coming?"

He didn't bother looking around, letting the tree Takuya had been standing beside take the full force of his glare. He let his fists clench, the nails biting into his palm, and then took a deep breath. He counted to ten. He envisioned going through an old kata in his head. He ran through all the calming exercises his martial arts instructors had ever taught him.

Then he punched the damn tree and followed his friends.

* * *

><p>"Well," Junpei stated blankly. "This at least explains why no one's been able to find the Holy Court lately."<p>

They all sighed, staring up past the leaves to what they knew was Serifimon's castle. They had managed to negotiate their way through the maze of trees and branches, occasionally pulling out their digivices to lead the way and sometimes relying on Takuya's instinct, but they had finally reached the last stairway, only to find the way blocked by a huge, shining force field.

Izumi frowned, reaching out to run her hand over the wall. "It feels like elastic."

"Elastic's got a breaking point," Takuya said, grinning as he moved back down a few steps. "Clear the way."

"Takuya, I don't think –" Kouichi began, but they all fell back with a shout as he dashed forward, ramming the force field with his shoulder. It bent under his weight, but then sprang back into shape, throwing Takuya back toward Kouji, who stepped aside almost absently to let him crash down the stairs to the last platform.

Kouichi stared at his brother, but Takuya scrambled back to his feet almost immediately, running back up to push against the wall with both hands. "I felt it move! I bet we can –" he grunted, before light suddenly crackled over his hands. He blinked at them, and then yelped as they suddenly flung themselves from the field and against his chest.

"Yes, Takuya. A human can surely break through a digital field with nothing but strength of will," Kouji drawled, and the others raised their eyebrows when Takuya's only reaction was to duck his head with a scowl.

"You got any better solutions?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," he said, and pulled his staff from the sling he had made with his backpack. He held it out in two hands and let the glow build until Kouichi had to turn into Izumi's shoulder to hide from the light. Kouji then twirled it up onto his arm and took aim, grounding his feet just in case. "_Licht Kugel_!"

The laser shot out and into the barrier, a white glow spreading across the wall in a bright circle. They stared at it hopefully for a moment, until Takuya's eyes suddenly widened and he spun around. "Get down, you idiot!" he yelled, just before the light shot back out, aimed directly for Kouji's chest.

Kouichi swung out his pitchfork, clenching his teeth in a silent prayer before the light hit. Black and white lightning crackled against each other around the three prongs, but the pitchfork remained whole and steady as the light slowly died. Only when it had completely faded did he drop it and sink to his knees.

"Kouichi!"

"Are you okay?" Tomoki asked, reaching out but not willing to touch him in case it hurt.

"Ouch," he said, and then smiled when Kouji knelt down beside him, muttering apologies. "I'm fine, though."

They stared down at him for a moment, then around at each other.

"Maybe we can get around it somehow?" suggested Junpei.

"I don't know of any other entrance," said Takuya, and he leaned back against the wall, folding his arms. It didn't give any reaction, and he shifted his head left and right, seeing how far the field went. "Besides, I think it's a full dome of some kind."

"I don't understand," Izumi said worriedly, carefully pushing her hand against the wall. It bent under her touch, but didn't attack, so she curled her fingers in and leaned against it. "Why would they lock us out like this? The castle always let us in before."

"I don't think it's the same barrier," said Junpei. "I don't think it even comes from the citadel. It's something else."

"Maybe…" Tomoki paused, considering. "Maybe it's not trying to keep us out."

"Well, it sure isn't letting us in," Kouichi pointed out, trying to rub some life back into his arms.

"No, I mean… I don't think it's just here to keep people out," he explained. "Think about it. Serifimon's castle was always really well protected, and it's almost impossible to find. We've been here before and had our digivices guiding us, but it still mostly came down to luck that we got here. Then there's the branches that block the lower paths, and the barrier of light around the castle… Most people would've long since given up, so I gotta think that this wall being here to keep people out is…"

"It's too excessive," Kouji murmured, staring up at it. "It's not here to keep people out. It's here to keep them _in_."

"Oh, man…" Junpei threw up his hands and walked back down the steps enough so he could sit down. "This is just great! Now what're we supposed to do? Our contact on the outside doesn't know enough about the digital world to help us out, and in here, our main source of information is _Bokomon_, who, for all we know, is locked inside a big crystal castle that's locked inside a bigger crystal ball! We're screwed!"

"Hey, come on now, Junpei, don't get our hopes up or anything," Takuya drawled, and Junpei glared at him over his shoulder.

"_Screwed_!"

Izumi's head jerked up at the repetition, and she frowned, looking around at the boys. "Something's missing."

"Oh, something else you want to depress Junpei with?" asked Takuya, but she ignored him.

"Where's Pipismon?"

They blinked, then looked around at each other. Tomoki raised his head to check the sky with a grimace. "He _was_ flying above us…"

Takuya frowned, eyeing the way Izumi's fingers were still curled into the wall, and then slowly turned around to mimic her, raising one hand to cling to the barrier above his head. He hesitated, but when the wall didn't object, he tried bracing his foot on the wall as well. It pushed in just enough, and he grinned, dropping down to take off his jacket.

"Hold this," he said, thrusting it into Tomoki's arms before turning around to grip the wall and haul himself up again.

"What are you doing?" Kouji asked blankly, but he didn't pause, not wanting to risk his luck.

"I'm gonna go see if Pipismon's still above us," he said lightly, gaining a little more confidence when he didn't fall, and so jumping a little in the climb. The barrier crackled menacingly when his fingers pushed in too far, but he just leapt up again to avoid it.

"I've got another question," Junpei said, staring up at him blankly and then raising his voice as Takuya moved farther up. "_How_ are you doing that?"

"Don't ask dumb questions!"

Izumi blinked, then shifted around and tried to follow him. As soon as she put her foot against the wall she slid back down to the stairs, and grimaced at the pull on her fingers. "I don't think it's a dumb question," she told Junpei. "How is he doing that?"

"I saw him scale a brick wall a few weeks ago," Tomoki interjected. "I tried to do it and couldn't find the footholds."

"Yeah, but that was in the real world when he was acting all… animal-ey," she said, frowning. "He shouldn't be able to do that stuff anymore, right?"

"Now you mention it…" Kouichi said slowly, turning to stare at his brother. "In that fight with Potensharu, he was jumping around really, really easily. He got onto a branch twice his height above the ground, straight up."

"It's nothing," Kouji said firmly, and he stood up as if to cut off the conversation. "Worry about it when he asks you to do the same, not before."

Above their heads, Takuya had reached a point where he felt more on the diagonal than vertical, and so felt safer to pause and look around. The trees were still arching overhead, but the ones inside the barrier had stopped, meaning he could finally see some of the citadel. The original rainbow barrier of light still shone around it, inside the bubble he stood on, and he frowned.

"Tomoki's right," he murmured, and then jumped forward to begin his climb again. "But who would lock down Serifimon's castle? I can't see any of the Holy Court doing it – even if the three Angels had come back from that training, they'd want to be able to get in and out. They're supposed to guide the digital world."

He clambered up until his head finally burst out of the trees, and then looked around. Sure enough, Pipismon was hovering over the citadel, staring down at the inner barrier. "Hey! Pipismon!"

"Big Brother Takuya!" it chirped back, flying over to join him. They weren't sure why, but the digimon had attached itself to Tomoki over the last few days, and so had picked up most of his phrases. They didn't mind for the most part – it was definitely nicer to talk to than when it had been copying Kouji.

"What're you doing up here?" he asked, but didn't stop climbing until he reached an area that he could easily stand on. Pipismon circled his head, then flew away, inviting him to follow.

"We're almost at Serifimon's castle," it said cheerfully, as Takuya clambered up alongside it again.

"Yeah, but we can't get through. Obviously," he added thoughtlessly, bouncing on the force field. Lightning crackled over his boots, but he was on a flat enough surface to just scramble away from it. "Have you found any doors or weak points or anything?"

"Hopefully Bokomon and Neemon will be there," it said, and he grimaced.

"Yeah, but they're not any help to us while we're…" He trailed off, noticing that Pipismon wasn't looking at him anymore. He blinked, then looked down through the barrier. Although they were almost a hundred metres up, it was easy enough to see that they were standing above the edge of the citadel's platform, where the inner barrier began. With its shimmering rainbow of colours, it was harder to see through, but when he crouched down and squinted, Takuya could just make out two figures walking around.

"Is that…?" He leaned closer, cursing his average eyesight. "It's not Bokomon and Neemon. These two're too big to be them, but…"

"I wonder if Sorcerymon has been reborn yet," Pipismon chattered, and Takuya glanced up at it.

"You think so? Then who's the other one?"

It gazed back at him silently, and he sighed, leaning back down to press his face against the force field. It didn't make things any clearer, but it made him feel closer.

"If only there was some way to get their attention. I don't have any powers as a human, and I don't know if the others can climb so well," he said, and then rolled onto his back, frowning up at the sky. "But down on the stairwell is too far away. I doubt sound would do it. If I hadn't gotten Kouji mad at me before, I'd carry him up here so he could shine a light down, but I don't think he wants to talk to me right now, let alone put his life in my hands."

He lifted his arm to cover his eyes, letting the possibilities trail through his mind.

"If we could get his Thor Hammer to work, Junpei might draw some attention… but he's too heavy. I could probably carry him as Flamon, but I don't know how to transform, and besides, then I could just Broken Roar the barrier or something. Izumi's wind would be useless, and if Kouji let me carry Kouichi up here he'd probably just end up with his own spear-thingy through his chest. If Tomoki evolved into Chakmon… nah, it'd just make everything all icy and we'd slip off." He hummed in the back of his throat. "But I suppose the only way to know all that for sure is if we try. What do you think, Pipismon? Should I try to get Kouji up here?"

He waited a moment, then frowned when there was no reply. "Pipismon?" he asked, lifting his arm and then sitting up when he didn't immediately see it. "Pipismon? Where are you?"

Later, when Kouji asked him, he said it was a really bad feeling. But at the time, Takuya had no idea why he instinctively refused to look up at the sky in search of a flying digimon. Something made him keep his gaze firmly fixed on the area just around him, and so he didn't see Pipismon climbing several hundred metres into the clouds. He didn't watch as it reached a summit and paused, hanging on a thermal as it spent several seconds contemplating the sanity of its plan. It was too late when Takuya finally lifted his head and looked up, only to see Pipismon plummeting toward him, straight and small and powerful as a nuclear missile.

"This is gonna hurt," he commented, two seconds before Pipismon slammed into the elastic force field.

* * *

><p>The forest was quiet. There was a slight wind pushing through the trees, and Izumi was somehow playing with it, winding wisps of air around her arms and sending them down near her feet. Kouji's foot tapped against the stair below his seat, betraying his irritation. Kouichi's pitchfork made a steady, rhythmic thump as he drummed it against the steps.<p>

They had been waiting for almost half an hour, and the silent stillness was beginning to take its toll.

"When he gets back down here, I think I'm gonna throw Takuya off the stairway," Junpei said conversationally, and Izumi made a quiet noise of vague agreement.

"Hey."

They looked around, and Kouji frowned back at them, holding up one hand for silence. "Do you hear that?"

"What?"

He opened his mouth to answer, but before he could do more than that, a blast of energy rocketed into them, slamming them all off their feet and down the stairs. They hit hard, tumbling over each other until they finally came to a stop on the platform, Kouichi groaning on the bottom of the pile and Izumi nauseous on top.

"Ugh… everyone okay?" Kouji asked blearily, shoving Junpei's foot from his face. "Everyone still with us?"

"I left my stomach on the third step," said Izumi, and she slid off Tomoki's back to stand and help the others to their feet. "But the rest of me's still here."

"I'm – squashed!" Kouichi gasped, pushing at Kouji. "Get – off – me!"

"Sorry, sorry!" cried Tomoki, scrambling to his feet so Kouji and Junpei could roll free. Kouichi collapsed back against the platform, panting hard.

"What in the digital world was that?" Junpei demanded, before he realised what hard work standing was and sat down again. He sighed, touching his forehead for balance, then looked up at Kouji. "Did you hear that before us?"

"I don't know," he confessed, then frowned and looked around, suddenly realising he couldn't see his staff. "I can still hear something… like someone yelling. Or screaming. Something."

They all paused, tilting their heads the better to listen. After a moment, Tomoki's eyes widened, and Izumi began to blush.

"Or cursing," Kouji added, raising his eyebrows. "It could be Takuya cursing, too."

"And coming closer," said Junpei, and they all blinked before Tomoki suddenly gasped.

"Oh no! I dropped his jacket!" he cried, spinning around. "He told me to hold on to it! He's gonna kill me!"

"From a personal perspective, Tomoki, I don't think any of us would particularly care if you lost part of these ridiculous outfits," Kouji pointed out, but anything Tomoki might have said in reply was cut off by a loud thump, quickly followed by a wave of hot air that made Tomoki grab for his hat and Izumi grimace as her hair flew around her face.

They waited until the wave had passed, then slowly all turned as one to exchange glances. There was a pause, before Kouji spun on his heel and sprinted back up the stairs, quickly followed by the others. The barrier was still in place, but it was sparking with electrical energy and had taken on a strange red glow.

Izumi reached out to touch it, then yelped and yanked her hand back to hide under her arm. "It's burning!" she cried, and Junpei nodded, staring through to the trees on the other side.

"Half the leaves in there are burnt, too. But I don't see any actual fire –"

"The transformation was too fast to light a real fire," Kouji murmured, his brow furrowing as he stared inside. "The heat exploded outward and was gone in less than a second."

"Transformation?" Kouichi repeated. "You think Takuya's inside? As Flamon?"

"I think he got in somehow," he agreed, carefully not looking at them as if that could hide the concern on his face. "I don't know if he still –"

"—you better fly away from me, you mangy, flea-bitten, psychotic, bad-luck charm _rodent_!" a familiar voice yelled, just before a singed purple rocket zipped up through the trees in front of them, flying hard for higher ground. It was quickly followed by a red blur that left burning leaves in its wake. "I'm gonna barbeque you! I'm not even gonna bother skinning you – I'm gonna watch the fur disintegrate from your body as I burn you to a fine, charcoal crisp! And then I'm going to feed you to maggots! And I'm gonna sit there and I'm gonna watch as they burrow into your—"

The tirade faded as the two figures disappeared, and they all blinked, their heads turning up to try and see the spectacle. No one spoke for a long moment.

"You know, I used to be really jealous of Takuya," Junpei said conversationally. "I mean, the guy has everything – strength, power, talent, his family's fairly well off and the girls seem to think he's pretty good looking. Everyone listens to him because he always knows what to do."

"You said 'used to be'?" Kouichi asked.

"Yeah. Because then stuff like this happens, and suddenly my life doesn't seem so bad."

"—the ten areas did you think you were doing? You could've killed us both! Too bad for you the barrier broke, because it means I'm not dead and now you're going to wish you were, you scum-sucking, scythe-laden, berries-for—" The two flashed past again, and the group's heads dropped to follow.

"Not to mention that all the great stuff that happens to him is sending him insane," Kouji added quietly, making Izumi, Junpei and Tomoki snort. But he didn't smile, and they stepped back to wait for their leader to calm down.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	16. Faces from the Past

_**Rebooted – Chapter Fifteen**_

Faces from the Past

**TRUFAX:** Noah's grand strategy, at the end of the day, was to swap his mind with Seto and then have things carry on as they were. Why he got the others involved, aside from the Big Five's agenda and the urge to rub Seto's face in the 'I'm taking away aaaaaall your toys!', we don't know. Bad guy monologue, tsk tsk…

**DOUBLE TRUFAX!** Bokomon, for those who haven't watched the Japanese version in a while, had a few tics. Its pantsubatsu was 'pants punishment', stretching Neemon's pants out and then snapping them back like a rubber band. It got censored a couple of times for the English version because it looked like Neemon was nursing another part of its anatomy afterward, not its waist. Bokomon also liked to repeat words three times (particularly _what-what-what_), and spoke with an accent, so everyone was '-han', and sentences ended in '-hara!'. It didn't translate well to English…

* * *

><p>Although Takuya had always made great use of his tail as Vrytramon and Ardhamon, he couldn't say he was particularly fond of the appendage when he was Flamon. Far from being prehensile or even heavy enough to make a weight, the flame-like waste of space just hung around behind him, flicking backwards and forward and ruining any attempts he might have made to hide his profound irritation.<p>

He scowled at Pipismon, nervously fluttering overhead as Takuya stalked up the stairwell. "I don't see why I have to bring you, oh would-be murder-suicider."

"Pipismon can listen to your conversation and repeat it back to us," it said, mimicking Kouji's inflection perfectly. "That way you can continue investigating while it comes back and tells us what's going on."

"It wasn't a question!" he yelled, and Pipismon jumped a few more feet into the air, clearly terrified. Its apparent plan to break the barrier with pure gravity and momentum had worked, but not without sparking the pair with ridiculous amounts of energy and then leaving them to freefall kilometres to the ground. Takuya wasn't sure when he had turned into Flamon and saved himself by bounding off the surrounding trees, but he was still pretty intent on getting his revenge for the stupid and dangerous plan.

Of course, a more honest and downright unhelpful part of his mind was pointing out that if he had been able to fly and Pipismon hadn't been there, he might have tried the same trick himself, but that wasn't helping his mood in the slightest.

He compromised with his own anger by flicking wayward handfuls of flame every time Pipismon came within a metre of his head. His aim was nowhere near the digimon, but it made him feel better, and kept it away from him.

The crystal barrier loomed above him as he took the last few steps, but as soon as he stepped onto the platform it melted away, providing a doorway just large enough for him to walk through. He shot a warning look at Pipismon and stepped inside, then looked over his shoulder to watch the barrier close again, Pipismon still hovering outside.

"Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Pipismon can listen to your conversation," it said, and he nodded.

"Cool. Let's go find those digimon that were walking around, before. Tell me if you see anything before I do."

"_Don't move_."

Anyone else would have frozen, or flinched, and five years ago, Takuya would have been among those that spun around with both fists clenched, ready for a fight. As it was, his back only straightened, and he slowly turned around to meet Sorcerymon's glare past the threatening staff. Kouji would have been proud of his blank expression.

"Who are you?" the digimon asked quietly. "How did you get in here?"

"I suppose I could be called Flamon," he replied, then smiled. "But you'd know me better as Takuya."

"Takuya…?" he repeated, his eyes narrowing behind his coverings. "The digihuman?"

"Okay, that title? Really starting to tick me off," he snapped. "Everyone who calls me that tries to kill me. I used to like you, though, so I'm not gonna fry you to a crisp for it, but I am gonna ask that you don't use it."

"The Warrior of Flame," he corrected, and Takuya sighed.

"Yeah, I guess. I was kinda hoping you'd remember me, but you did get deleted, so…"

"I do not recall my previous lives," he said, then lowered his staff. "I can only take your presence within the Citadel as proof of your claim, though you cannot fault me my suspicion. No one has passed through the outer barrier in a decade."

"You mean the giant bubble surrounding this place? Yeah, that kinda freaked us out. Who the hell put that thing there anyway?"

"How did you pass it?"

Takuya frowned, putting his hands on his waist as he considered. It was pretty clear Sorcerymon didn't believe him, and wouldn't go giving him answers like he had the first time they met. He hesitated, and then jerked his head back to indicate Pipismon. "I was on top of the bubble when that idiot crashed into it like a furry, moronic bullet. I guess the force broke us through, but now we can't get out again. As for this one," he added, nodding to the usual, shimmering barrier, "it just let me through because… well, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be here."

"This palace contains a war room, should the Legendary Warriors ever return to consult the three great angels," Sorcerymon said, and he tilted his head slightly. "Perhaps you are then who you say."

"Who else would I be?"

"You are an unfamiliar digimon," he pointed out, and then lashed out with his staff again to hold it against Takuya's neck. "As such, you will come with me to meet Bokomon-sama and prove your identity."

Unimpressed with the threat, Takuya just leaned around the staff in interest. "Bokomon's here?"

"As I am certain you are aware, Bokomon-sama once accompanied the Legendary Warriors, and knows all their secrets. If you are lying, we shall soon know."

"Right. Where is he? Is Neemon here, too?"

"Hn," he said vaguely, and used his staff to force Takuya sideways. He wasn't particularly worried about Sorcerymon hurting him, whether the digimon tried to or not, but he followed the staff's forced directions without complaint or comment. He waited until they had gotten through the palace doors and halfway down the hall before glancing over his shoulder.

"So, Sorcerymon, who put up that outer barrier? Is there any way to get it down? Only my friends –"

"If you are who you claim, you shall know these things in time," he said coldly, and directed Takuya toward a door to their left. "If not, we have dungeons for you to rot in. Your friends will not come to your aid."

"Great," he drawled, but merely closed his eyes to wait for Sorcerymon to open the door. "Just out of interest, you are gonna give me time to talk to Bokomon, aren't you? 'Cause if this is just a 'does this guy look like your guy' thing, I can save us both a lot of time – he ain't gonna recognise me by my shotocom good looks right now."

"Shoto –?" Sorcerymon cut himself off at that and pushed Takuya forward. They remained silent for the rest of the trip, until they reached a large door made out of shining pink crystal.

Takuya gazed up at it for a moment, then looked down at his 'guide'. "I've got a real urge to make a Sailor Moon reference."

"Silence. _Please_," he added helplessly, and Takuya grinned as the digimon pushed forward to open the door. It led into a huge library, with books covering every inch of the monolithic walls. The room was long and thin, and at the very opposite end, almost a hundred metres away, a small desk was piled with scraps of paper. Beside it, dwarfed further than usual by their surroundings, Bokomon and Neemon stood arguing, clearly in the middle of a pantsubatsu as Bokomon stretched the elastic of Neemon's trousers as far as it would go.

"Bakamon!" Bokomon screeched, and the elastic snapped back, making Neemon yell and tumble head over heels away from its partner.

Takuya grinned and rushed forward, leaping out of the way as Sorcerymon threw his staff. "Bokomon! Neemon!"

"That voice!" Bokomon spun around, but stopped when it caught sight of Takuya. "Huh-huh-huh? Who are you?"

"Freeze!" Sorcerymon shouted, but Takuya ignored him, skidding to a stop in front of Bokomon.

"He sounds like Takuya," Neemon said, in its slow, nasal voice. It pushed itself up to sitting, and propped itself up with its hands between its legs. "Ne, are you Takuya?"

"Don't be stupid!" Bokomon snapped. "This can't be Takuya-han – Takuya-han and the others all went back to – Ahh! You have the symbol of Fire!"

Takuya blinked at the sudden screaming gasp, then looked down at his belt. He'd forgotten the symbol, but thanked the spirits for it anyway. "Yeah. Because Neemon's right – I am Takuya."

"What, what? How is that possible?" Bokomon hurried forward to grab his hand and swing him around, the better to see him. "You don't look like Takuya-han!"

"Well, of course not, I'm a digimon right now," he said, but didn't move as Bokomon clambered up his back to pull at his tail, hair and ears. "But it is me. I'll tell you something only I could know, like, um… oh!" He punched his hand into the opposite fist, making a small burst of flame as he glared from the corner of his eye. "What the hell was up with those books, Bokomon? You made us all into heroic freaks! And totally ignored all the bad bits, like me losing it when I first turned into Vrytramon! I nearly killed Tomoki, and you totally glossed over it!"

Bokomon climbed up onto his head and hung down, so Takuya could only stare into its upside-down face. "I couldn't tell the truth! How am I supposed to tell people about what a hero you were if they thought you could kill your allies?"

"Yeah, but it ruined what Tomoki told me! You made him sound like a preaching weirdo!"

Bokomon rapidly blinked, obviously considering, and Takuya could just see Neemon holding up a hand. "That's what I told you, and you gave me a pantsubatsu."

"You be quiet!" Bokomon snapped, then flipped off Takuya's head to land in front of him.

"Bokomon-sama?" Sorcerymon asked cautiously, and they glanced back at him. "Is he…?"

"Tell me something else!" Bokomon demanded, pointing at Takuya again. "Something that wasn't in the book at all!"

"Like what? I didn't read all of them, I don't know what's not in there," he said, and Neemon stood up.

"What about why you disappeared in the Dark Area? After Duskmon first defeated you." It touched its cheek with one finger. "Bokomon said that bit didn't fit the hero either."

"No, it didn't," Takuya agreed, before looking back down at Bokomon. "I didn't appreciate what we were risking; I wasn't taking the fight seriously, because back then, I didn't realise how important this world is to me. When Kouji took that hit for me, I realised I should have died, and I tried to go back to the real world, because I didn't deserve to be here. But I came back, because this world is just as much my home as the other world is. And I wanted to defend it. That was when I really connected with Agunimon. It's when I really came into my powers."

Bokomon stared at him for a moment, then suddenly burst into tears and lunged forward, gripping Takuya around the waist and wailing at the top of its lungs. "Takuya-han! You came back! It's been so long!"

"Bokomon…" he murmured, then grunted as Neemon suddenly attached itself to the other side of Takuya's waist. "Neemon!"

"We missed you," it informed him, and Takuya smiled, petting the misshapen rabbit's head.

"Yeah… I missed you guys too."

* * *

><p>It took a little while to detach the frantic digimon, and even longer to convince Sorcerymon that not only was he not mad at him for being suspicious, but he also wasn't some great hero that needed to be revered. After that, Takuya had to explain his form, and how they'd come back, before he managed to turn the subject toward the outer barrier.<p>

"We're prisoners," Sorcerymon explained, before Bokomon could ask another deterring question. "Have you heard of the haato?"

"Yeah. They've got a real problem with us breathing, so we've been fighting them ever since we got here," he said, then grinned. "Even beat a few of 'em."

"One keeps us locked here to protect us from the others," he said, and gestured to the door. "Come, I will take you to him."

"He gonna try and kill me?" he asked, following the other three as they headed out.

"Hiisutori-sama dislikes violence. That's why we're prisoners – to avoid the war he thinks is coming," Bokomon explained. "He says that we're victims of crossfire."

"Because the world was destroyed in the war," Neemon added, and Takuya grimaced.

"That's true. Sorcerymon died trying to save us, and we couldn't stop the digital world from being absorbed for Lucemon." He hesitated, warily glancing around the hallways as they walked. "But that's long over. And we only just got here like three weeks ago. If he's had you here for ten years…"

They all shrugged, and Sorcerymon gestured to a small wooden door at the end of the hall. "We ask, but perhaps you will receive an answer."

"He's in there?"

"Always," said Bokomon, and Takuya glanced at it once before looking around at them.

"Are the three angels here? Or did they really disappear?"

"Who knows?" Neemon shrugged again, and Bokomon folded its arms.

"They returned from their training journey as adult digimon, but the next day, Hiisutori-sama arrived. No one has seen or heard from them since."

"So they could be trapped somewhere in here, or locked outside somewhere," murmured Takuya, and they nodded. He frowned, then took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Outside, there should be a Pipismon, waiting. It can take you to the others. If I'm not back out in ten minutes… tell Kouji what's going on. Tell him that should be answer enough."

"What's that mean?" asked Bokomon, but Takuya was already walking away.

The room was small and dark, a complete contrast from the rest of the palace. It was also completely empty, except for a huge wooden desk and chair, both piled high with yellowed papers.

Takuya slammed the door behind himself and charged his fists up with fire. "I know you're here."

"Welcome," a deep voice boomed, and the papers shuffled on the desk. Takuya's eyes narrowed, and the paper slid upwards, curling around itself until it formed a vaguely human shape. After a few moments, the construction shimmered, gaining colour and form until it appeared to be a young boy in a sharp white middle school uniform. Unlike the other humanoid haato, its hair was not aquamarine, but pitch-black and slicked back against its skull, though it had the same piercing blue eyes. Its hands, Takuya noticed in a quick glance, were too large for the body, old and scarred and covered in grey-black hair.

"You're Hiisutori?" he asked, and it scoffed.

"You state the obvious."

"You know who I am?"

"Torasuto's prey," it replied. "She, I assume, is now dead."

"Very."

"And now you are here to kill me."

"It's a possibility," he agreed, baring his fangs in a grin. "Paper burns well, y'know. So maybe you oughta start talking."

"About what, exactly?"

"You put that barrier around this palace –"

"It is obviously not as effective as I'd hoped," it said coldly. "You and the rest of the war were not supposed to be able to get in."

"There wasn't a war on when you trapped everyone in here!" he yelled, but Hiisutori looked away.

"There is always war. Whether it is visible or simply coming, war is always in progress. I am shielding the innocent from those that fight such meaningless battles. None of it matters in the end, but so many innocents will fall in its wake," Its eyes flicked back to him. "Once, the only victim was the world. Then, those that were not beast nor human fell. Then you came, and so many fell because of your weakness."

He stiffened, his fists twisting and making his fire burn hotter. "I tried to save this world and its people. I can't be blamed for what the corrupted warriors did."

"So they always say. Things just happen," it said, and Takuya licked his lips. It didn't seem to be aware of the nerves it was hitting, continuing without apparent thought. "And things will just happen again. Potensharu never stops to consider those around him. Modesuti attacks anyone who acknowledges the strengths of others. Arogansu… that fool would have destroyed this beautiful city without thinking had I not saved it."

He couldn't help it. "Why?" he asked blankly.

"Because he destroys anything of greatness. If it falls, he believes, it is because it is not as great as it seems. You too may fall to his strengths, because you are regarded as and accept your position as the Great Warrior of Flame. He will test you. You may fail."

"Me and my friends have already beaten five of you Haato," he argued. "We can beat one more."

"Oh, how the greatest wars begin – 'we have done this before'."

Takuya pursed his lips, then squared his shoulders and tried again. "Where are the Great Angels?"

"Hidden. For their continued safety."

"From Arogansu?"

"Yes."

"So how come no one else knows where they are? They're important to this world! One day, they're going to rule it as great defenders! The digimon need them!"

Hiisutori closed its eyes but didn't otherwise move. It hadn't yet shifted even an inch. "Figureheads are important if you make them so. Such is how wars are fought. If the Angels do not exist, the digimon will not fight for their honour or out of duty. Also, if they do not know where the angels are, they cannot tell Arogansu when he tortures them."

"He's still gonna hurt them, though!" he cried, and slammed his hands down on the desk, taking care to keep his fire from spreading. "If you want to help them so much, let the Angels grow up, evolve and fight! They could have beaten him!"

"The other haato wish to leave this world," Hiisutori said simply, unmoved by the threatening flames. "They cannot do so if they are dead. They would have joined forces and easily defeated the Angels."

He hesitated, thinking that over. "The other haato… that means you don't want to leave."

"I do not care. There is more violence in the other world, but the people here do not learn from their past. Neither appeal. I will go if the others do. I will stay so long as they are here." It closed its eyes again. "Wherever the haato go, I must follow. I will not allow them to inflict their 'collateral damage'. No war is worth its price."

Takuya stared at it silently for a few moments, then stood up straight. "So… so you don't want to hurt either world?"

"Correct."

"And you're only keeping everyone trapped here because otherwise Arogansu will attack it and everyone inside," he surmised. "You don't actually care what happens to the other haato?"

"They chose the path of war and violence. They deserve to reap its 'benefits'."

"So… so if me and my friends were to destroy Arogansu, without hurting anyone else… you might… maybe… consider lifting the barrier? And letting the Angels go?"

Hiisutori slowly blinked. "The Angels will be at risk as long as Fiiru lives. But the barrier is only because of Arogansu."

"Fiiru?" Takuya asked, but Hiisutori didn't answer, and he realised his ten minutes were probably running out. Kouji'd probably kill him if he found out Takuya had made him think he wasn't coming back just because he was feeling chatty. "Okay, I've got a deal for you. You let me out of here, and me and my friends'll go destroy this Arogansu guy. Then you lift the barrier and let everyone in here come and go as much as they like. Okay?"

It blinked again. "That is a deal I accept. But I will not lift the barrier until I can sense Arogansu is dead."

"That's fair."

"Agreed, then. You have a minute to get outside the barrier. Only you can pass," it told him, and then reverted back to a paper mould, which then unravelled back into loose sheets of paper across the desk. Takuya stared at them for a second, then flinched and spun around, sprinting for the exit.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you're saving the world again and didn't bother to tell me!"<p>

Yuugi blinked as his oldest friend stormed straight past him and into the house. "Hey, Anzu, welcome back," he said weakly, then turned to watch her throw her backpack down the hall and walk back out to collect her suitcase.

The noise brought Yami out of the kitchen, still nursing his third coffee of the morning, and he leaned around the corner to watch as well. "Anzu. You should have called ahead; aibou would have picked you up from the airport."

"You!" she snarled, pointing at him. "I expect this sort of behaviour from Yuugi, but you promised you would tell me the next time you were in dire peril!"

"Do I look like I'm in dire anything?" he asked, lazily extending his arm to show off his relaxed state.

"Dire need of a shirt?" she suggested, but he just smirked and shifted to show off more of his bare chest.

"Time was you would have enjoyed this."

"Yeah, well, time was you could hide behind this one's nice guy image," she shot back, and Yuugi rolled his eyes, ignoring the old argument by taking Anzu's suitcase and heading back into the house.

"We're not in danger. No more than usual, anyway," he added, knowing Anzu would follow once she'd removed her shoes. "We're just helping out, really."

"How do you know, anyway?" asked Yami.

"Unlike some people, I do have a life outside my work," she said as she put her boots in the part of the cupboard kept specially for her shoes. "I thought it was kinda weird when Duel Monsters started appearing in the street."

"They're in America, then."

"Yeah. Mostly in the cities, where people still play the game with Solid Visions, and the usual costumed heroes are taking care of them. But it's worst in Domino, as always." They followed Yuugi around and up the stairs to the room Anzu could always claim as her own. While she was certainly rich enough and did have her own apartment in Tokyo, Anzu preferred to rent it out and simply borrow Yuugi's spare room whenever she was in the country. Once upon a time, it had been a point of contention for Yami, but he had long since gotten past it and now only asked that she bought them dinner whenever she stayed over. She felt so at home here that she didn't see the problem with critically eyeing the muscles in Yami's back and making comment on them. "I can't believe you. The city is being overrun by Duel Monsters, the whole world may be at risk, and you look like you spent the last twenty-four hours in bed. How the hell does Yuugi put up with your priorities?"

He turned to look at her over his shoulder, the glint in his eye belying his scowl. "The world is safer for it."

"Why, because you have all the self-control of a flea and the libido of Ryuuji Otogi?"

"If I had no self-control, aibou would not have been able to answer the door this morning."

"You are a sick, strange little man."

"A sick and strange man, perhaps."

"Ooh, I'm not sure I can believe that without proof."

"We have let the tabloids run dry lately, haven't we?"

Yuugi poked his head out of the spare bedroom to stare at them incredulously. "Tell me you two are not talking about what I think you are."

"What might that be, aibou?" Yami asked, but his smile slipped when Yuugi just rolled his eyes again and disappeared back into the bedroom.

Anzu patted his shoulder as she walked past. "Doesn't work anymore, huh?"

"Not since he noticed we only do it when we know he's there," he said, and followed her into the room so they could bring her up to speed.

* * *

><p>"That's ten minutes," Junpei murmured, glancing up from his mobile, and Izumi frowned.<p>

"What did that mean 'that should be answer enough'?" she asked, and they all looked around at Kouji, whose eyes had narrowed in anger.

"That idiot's late for everything," he snapped, but didn't throw off Kouichi's steadying hand. "Just wait him out."

Bokomon shifted nervously, gazing up at him through the invisible wall. "Kouji-han, it sounded as if Takuya-han thought he wasn't coming back out."

"No…" Tomoki breathed, and Kouichi's grip tightened on Kouji's shoulder.

"He – he's probably fine," stammered Junpei. "If he was really in trouble in a fight, he'd come get us. He's not suicidal, he'd run if he thought he was in real –"

"Shut up, Junpei," Kouichi snapped, never taking his eyes off his brother.

"Kouji," Izumi said, her tone firm in the way that threatened a panic attack. "Kouji, what did he mean by answer?"

"It doesn't matter," he said, glaring up at the palace. "This isn't an answer I'll accept."

Tomoki twisted his hands together, chewing his lip. "If – if he was fighting, we'd – we would see some kind of fire. Some sign he was…" He trailed off as his own words returned in the image of a large fireball shooting down the steps toward them. "No… no, it can't be…"

"It isn't," Junpei said. "It's not an attack! It's Flamon!"

"Why's he coming so fast?" Tomoki wondered.

"Everyone!" Takuya shouted, still barely visible through his fire. "Out of the way!"

"Maybe he's gotta break the barrier," Izumi suggested, as they all took instinctive steps backward, the four digimon moving as far away as they could without leaving the stairs.

"I can hear him counting," Kouji said quietly. "Why is he counting?"

But before any of them could guess, Takuya dove through the barrier, his slim body just barely slipping between Kouichi and Junpei's shoulders. He hit the stairs on his palms and flipped off, bouncing up three metres to a branch, which he swung around on momentum and released so he could fly off against a tree and leap back down beside them. "Fifty-nine, sixty seconds! Take that, Coach Yamahara! _Who's_ the slowest sprinter on the soccer team now?"

They all stared at him blankly, and he grinned back.

"Okay, so I don't think they'll let me run on all fours on the field, but you gotta admit, getting out from the very middle of the citadel and down all those steps in the sixty seconds I got was pretty damn awesome," he said brightly, then clapped his hands together, the last remnants of his speed-induced flames fading with the movement. "Okay, so the deal I made was that we go kick a specific Haato's butt, the barrier around the palace disappears, and we can come and go from the Citadel of Light how we please. How cool am I?"

Kouji's cheek twitched.

"Flamon…" Izumi murmured. "You… what happened in there?"

"Why were you running to get out?" asked Tomoki.

"How'd you get out so easy?" added Junpei.

"And which Haato in particular are we supposed to destroy?" Kouichi finished.

Takuya blinked around at them, but when he looked at Kouji he flinched back down a step. "Uhh… Bokomon?"

"Yes, Takuya-han?"

"You didn't actually tell them what I told you to tell them after ten minutes had passed, right?"

The digimon blinked. "Of course I did. You told me to."

"Right," he said, and took another step down as if that could lessen Kouji's glare. "But, um… I made it out in ten minutes, right?"

"More like eleven," said Junpei. "Why? What did you mean by that?"

"Nothing," he said firmly, pointing at him. "I meant absolutely nothing by that, because, Kouji, I thought that if I didn't make it out in time, it would be because I was dead, not because I wasn't coming back out, and I definitely was not answering sensitive questions that need much, much more thought than I have had time to give such an incredibly important question that will get a very deep and insightful answer, even though we both know I shouldn't have to answer it, because it is mean and petty, but that does not in any way imply that you should respond to any answer I have not yet given."

The others all stared at him, but Kouji just walked down the stairs until they were on the same step, where he didn't bend, but met Takuya's eyes by gazing down past his nose. Takuya swallowed but didn't move, and they just stared at each other, until Kouji let out a heavy breath and continued walking past.

"It was a copout answer anyway," he said, and Takuya hesitated, then turned back to the others.

"Come on, we've got a world to save! Hey, Bokomon, Neemon! You guys take care of Pipismon until we get back!"

"Takuya-han! Don't leave us!" Bokomon wailed, but Neemon only waved.

"Have a safe trip," he said happily.

"Return victorious!" Sorcerymon called, saluting them with his staff.

"Get back!" chirped Pipismon, and Takuya laughed before turning to follow Kouji.

The others looked around at each other, and Kouichi shrugged, holding up one hand in resignation.

"One day," he said wearily, "we will understand those two. Until then… Flamon said something about fighting a haato."

"Clear enough for me," said Tomoki, starting after the other two. Izumi and Junpei exchanged worried glances, but Kouichi just shrugged again, and the three of them followed without comment.

It was a plan, after all.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue<em>…?]


	17. Epic Fail

_**Rebooted – Chapter Sixteen**_

Epic Fail

**TRUFAX:** Noah was designed to fail. The digital world was not designed.

* * *

><p>Heaving a breath that was much louder than it really had any right to be, Tomoki dropped down into a crouch and started arranging the beddings they had been given in the last town.<p>

They had been wandering through various villages and towns for four days now, introducing themselves as loudly and grandly as possible to as many digimon as they could. It was, Tomoki knew, a good plan on Kouji's part. This Arogansu guy hated it when things were held up as 'great', and so if they went around pronouncing themselves as the 'Great Legendary Warriors That Have Returned to Restore Honour and Goodness to the Digital World', eventually Arogansu was going to come after them.

The problem was the key word: eventually.

"Four days," Junpei muttered as he and Izumi knelt down on the other side of the beddings. "Four villages, two towns, more digimon than I can count, let alone name…"

"Hey, look on the bright side," Izumi said cheerfully. "We're getting a lot of free stuff out of it!"

"Getting offerings _is_ kinda cool," he admitted. "But I gotta say, sleeping bags aren't a whole heap of comfort when we could be sleeping in real beds."

"I think it's weird," said Tomoki. "Being treated like some kind of god just because we fought a battle? It's creepy."

"What are you talking about, Tomoki? It's awesome!" He flopped back on the grass and gestured with one hand. "Junpei the Warrior of Thunder… with his beautiful partner: Izumi, the Lady of the Wind," he added with a charming smile.

Izumi rolled her eyes. "You don't even _have_ any powers at the moment."

"Do so!" he cried. "I knew when that generator was going short out, back in Fujitsu City!"

"It was Fujitsu City. Everything in that town was breaking."

"Ah! Such a cruel and unforgiving goddess."

"Would you have me any other way?"

Tomoki sighed again, looking over his shoulder to where Kouichi was pretending to gather firewood. No one was really sure why he bothered, since they all knew he was just keeping an ear out for the argument they knew was being held several metres into the forest.

For a week, Kouji and Takuya had been doing nothing but fight. It wasn't just their usual bickering, which everyone could have tolerantly ignored, but rather the kind of argument they used to have before they became friends. The kind where they would only talk in short, clipped sentences until Kouji demanded they speak in private and the fight would become loud and nasty.

It had made sense at first. Kouichi had told them it was about how Takuya hadn't helped Kouji out in his fight with Izumi. Then, when it didn't go away after a day, they started coming up with other reasons. Tomoki figured it might have to do with how quiet Takuya had been lately, only talking to digimon, giving orders, or when they needed encouragement. Izumi thought it was about how Takuya acted in front of the digimon they were trying to impress: his arrogance had always annoyed Kouji.

But none of those things explained why Takuya was getting mad too.

"Maybe it's that instincts thing again," Junpei said quietly, causing Tomoki to flinch and look back at him. "Two alpha males butting heads and all that?"

"No, if that was going to happen, it would have happened back in the real world," said Izumi. "Takuya was the prize of the squaring off, not the target."

"I've been meaning to ask about that," said Junpei, and she looked up, surprised.

"About what?"

"Well… When they're not at each other's throats, Kouji and Takuya are best friends, right?" he asked, gesturing to Kouichi and the woods beyond. "Closer than they are to their brothers."

"Yeah…"

"But Takuya and Tomoki have the big brother/little brother thing going on, too," he said, then leaned back on his hands and looked at Izumi face-on. "So I'd get it if _Tomoki_ was a threat to Kouji. But when he went all growling canine, it was on you. It's weird."

Tomoki blinked, realising he had a point. "Yeah. And if the wolf in him just wanted his friend to be only his friend, then he should have gotten upset with all of us. I mean, Junpei at least goes to the same school as Takuya. You don't even see him more than the rest of us."

She blushed, trying to wave the topic away. "I – I don't…"

"Maybe it has something to do with you being a girl," suggested Tomoki, leaning forward with the lecherous grin only thirteen year old boys could manage. "You know what I think? I think Takuya told Kouji he's got a crush on you. And Kouji thought you were gonna steal him away!"

"What!" she cried, leaning away from him. "Takuya doesn't –!"

"Nah, Tomoki, it doesn't make sense," Junpei said, frowning. "Kouji's smarter than that – he knows Takuya could never force Izumi into anything. Izumi would have to be the one showing interest."

"Which I didn't!" she said loudly, and Tomoki looked around at her high pitch, but Junpei just scowled.

"No. You've got that mysterious boyfriend," he said, then shot her a look. "Which we all know _of_ but know nothing _about_."

"Which is how it's gonna stay," she said firmly, but Tomoki could see her blush.

Further into the woods, just out of the others' hearing, Takuya slammed his fist into a tree trunk to keep himself from saying anything he would regret. After a long moment, he took a breath and opened his eyes without looking up. "It's not fair."

"Neither is life," Kouji said, and when Takuya finally did look up, it was to still see him in the exact same position: shoulders hunched and his fists in his pockets as he leaned back against a tree.

"What I don't get is how you can be all mad at me, when you're the one acting like an animal, here. You've got your teeth into this and you're not letting go, even though the topic is totally dead!" he cried, and one of Kouji's eyebrows rose slightly.

"You think I shouldn't still be concerned about this?"

"No! Because it's not about me turning into a digimon anymore – it's about me _wanting_ to be one!" he yelled, then caught himself and lowered his voice so it couldn't drift back to camp. "I like being Flamon. I like feeling useful and important and powerful. You think it's because I can't help but turn into him, but it's not! It's because I like it!"

"And that's not a problem to you?"

"How is it a problem?"

"You're not a digimon!" Kouji suddenly shouted, launching off the tree and pulling out his fists in one smooth movement. "You're a human being! You have a life and a home and a family and you're acting like you can just give it up!"

"I'm not –"

"You are!" he yelled, and Takuya ran his hands back through his hair in frustration, then gripped the back strands and yanked.

"I'm so sick of this, Kouji! You keep talking like we're okay with being human, but we're not! We're not just humans! We were forced out of this world without so much as a by-your-leave and we weren't ready to go!"

"It's not our world!"

"Yes, it is!" he cried, then let go of his hair and stepped forward, his eyes wide and angry. "You didn't accept and move on! You just keep telling yourself you did because you think that'll make it true, but it doesn't! You just chose to cut yourself off from the problem, like you do everything that's hard, and –"

He stopped when Kouji's hands suddenly shot out and gripped the front of his shirt, yanking him close. They just glared at each other for a second, before Takuya forced a grin that was more teeth than smile.

"What…? Hit too close to home?"

If he hadn't been so angry, Takuya might have seen the battling emotions behind Kouji's eyes. But all he had the time and energy for was the cold, blank stare boring into his own. Fists curled further into his shirt, and Takuya had to go up onto his toes to stop himself falling.

"I'm tired," Kouji snarled. "I'm tired of calling you an idiot when you won't listen to me. I'm tired of telling you things a thousand times and being ignored. I'm tired of having to ask you things and never, ever getting a straight answer."

"Then –!"

"I _know_ you. I know you're going to keep fighting until we beat the haato. I know you're going to make sure we win, and you're not going to be content until you're sure we're all fully capable of going home and staying there. But when you've done that, and when we go home, the one thing I'm not sure of is that you'll be coming with us," he snapped. "I don't know if you'll be human enough to come home. So just… ignore everything else. Ignore me when I talk and ask you questions, but dammit, Takuya, you will answer me this one thing. Will you come back to the real world?"

After Takuya had glared at him for several long, silent seconds, Kouji slowly lowered him back to the ground and let him go. His hands dropped to his sides, and Takuya stepped back, pulling his jacket more securely around his shoulders.

"I can't believe you'd ask me that."

"Stop avoiding the damn question!" he yelled, but Takuya just glared at him and he stepped back again, keeping his hands down.

"I couldn't believe you'd ask me to choose between you and Izumi, either," he said lowly, and Kouji shifted as he recognised Agunimon's tone in there. "You're not asking me if I'm going to be there when you need me – you're asking me to change who I am!"

"I'm asking you to tell me who you _are_!" he shouted.

"You just said you knew me!"

"I thought I did!" he yelled. "I thought you were my best friend that would always be there for me! I thought you were my partner that would always have my back! I thought you were Takuya Kanbara: soccer and basketball star, star pupil, perfect son…! But all this crap about you and digimon and I don't know anymore! Tell me who you are!"

"Fine!" he shouted, stepping back into Kouji's space and leaning up toward him. "I am Takuya Kanbara! I am the Warrior of Flame, partner to Kouji, the Grand Strategist of the Digital World! I am Kouji Minamotou's best friend, and Izumi's good friend and Tomoki's big brother and Junpei's underclassman and Kouichi's friend and I am not going to give up any one of those things just because they don't mesh well with what you think! I am a hundred different things, Kouji, but the one thing I am most definitely not is some stupid, weak little high schooler human with a promising future in the real world!"

"Why the hell not?" he demanded, and Takuya flung his arms down and out, gesturing to his whole body in one quick movement.

"Because I don't _have_ a future there!"

Neither of them saw it coming. The words had barely left Takuya's lips before Kouji's fist suddenly rammed into Takuya's cheek, throwing him against a tree and down. Kouji froze before Takuya even hit the dirt, no longer breathing as he stared at what he'd done.

Takuya coughed, automatically wiping spit and a single drop of blood from his lip. He then paused and lowered his head to stare at the red smear on his hand, his shoulders dropping in quiet surprise. His cheek was already red, and Kouji suddenly noticed his own hand, still extended and fisted with the urge to hit him again. He stumbled back against a tree, moving his arm behind his back to hide it as Takuya looked back up at him, his eyes heavy and dark.

Neither moved for several long seconds.

"Nice one," Takuya said finally, his voice as dark as his eyes. The sound was unfamiliar… not like Agumon's quick, direct speeches or Vrytramon's wild passion. It wasn't even Ardhamon's righteous judgement. It was Takuya: cold and grown up and hurt and absolutely furious.

Kouji had no idea how to speak to that voice.

Takuya touched his lip again, then huffed out what could have been a laugh under any other circumstances. He clambered back to his feet and brushed himself off, then tugged the material over his fingers tight, as if straightening gloves he no longer wore.

"Takuya," Kouji began. "I –"

He just held up his hand, stalling him into silence. "No… Don't."

"Stop –"

"Izumi slaps and hits and punches everyone… Other guys – guys on my sports teams and the guys in my class – they punch each other all the time. And that's cool, you know? It's how they show each other they care. But they don't hit me," he said, and looked away for a moment, smiling softly. "I used to think it was because they knew I wouldn't be able to stop myself from hitting back, harder, but I don't think that's it. I don't really know what it is, though, 'cause Izumi hits me all the time, and it's okay."

Kouji swallowed as Takuya looked back at him again, meeting his gaze with something cold and blank.

"But it's not okay with you. I won't take it from you."

"Takuya –"

"Shut up," he commanded. "In the five years we've known each other, you've done everything from insult me to shove me to pin me up against a wall by my neck. But you don't hit me. No matter how much I screw up, or how dumb I am, you don't ever hit me. Because if you did, I'd know you meant it. And if I hit you back, you'd use all your martial arts training stuff and probably try and kill me. And I'd fight back, because I'm not some pathetic little weakling that's gonna take it, and you know we wouldn't stop fighting until one of us was down for the count. You _know_ that."

Oh, god… oh, god, he'd hit Takuya…

"I'm not gonna hit you back, Kouji," said Takuya. "But I damn well took the hit."

Kouji unconsciously twisted his shoulder further back, as if hiding his arm could hide what had happened. Takuya opened his mouth as if to continue, but then just let out another kind of laugh and walked off into the trees.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a minute, Takuya's footsteps faded into the sounds of the forest, and Kouji slid down the tree trunk until he was sitting in the dirt. He braced his elbows on his knees, then pressed his fist against his mouth. It was still shaking, and it was the same one that he could still feel smacking against Takuya's skin.

"I hit Takuya…"

* * *

><p>All of them had given up pretending not to be worried when they heard the real yelling start.<p>

None of them could hear the words, but they knew the tone. Kouji and Takuya were getting dirty and honest, and they had all been in fights like that to know it couldn't turn out well. But then it all suddenly cut off, and there hadn't been any sound in over half an hour.

It was going against everything he stood for, but Kouichi was happy to admit he was a hypocrite. When Izumi muttered something about one of them going to see if everything was okay, he had decided it was best if he was the one. He had no idea what could have cut off the noise, but the possibilities running through his unconscious were telling his conscious mind that the others would probably mess things up.

Or maybe he was just curiously selfish.

Whatever it was, he set off in the direction they had last heard sound from, and after a few minutes, he found Kouji sitting at the base of a tree, staring at the dirt under his shining white boots.

"Found you," Kouichi said quietly, glancing around to check for Takuya. He could see a few scuffed boot prints leading further into the woods, and knew that couldn't possibly be a good sign. He hesitated, and then crouched down beside his brother to look at him.

Kouichi had only known his brother for five years, and although they had become closer than he ever thought possible, he knew they weren't as close as people thought. Although Kouji could be downright girly sometimes, wanting to talk about feelings and getting everything out in the open, he had a surprisingly tight grip on his own emotions. Kouichi had never seen him cry, and he didn't think he ever would.

But when they'd first met in the real world, in that emergency room when Kouichi had happily sobbed and Kouji had gripped him so hard he'd nearly choked, he'd seen the same look Kouji wore now. It was caught between hard and completely broken, his jaw set and lips pulled back; his eyes shining but narrowed to keep them under control. It was a steadfast refusal to cry.

"So… you guys had a fight, huh?" Kouichi asked. "Bigger than usual, I'm guessing."

"The idiot…" he said quietly, his voice cracking under the pressure. "I…"

"What?"

"He said he didn't have a future in the real world," he said. Each word was clipped but shaking, and he closed his eyes for several seconds before speaking again. "And I hit him."

"What?" Kouichi asked, tilting his heard. "I don't think I heard you –"

"I hit him," he said again, his voice almost squeaking as it rose in volume. "I punched him. Knocked him down. My fist connected with his face. How else do you want me to say it, elder brother? I _hit_ my best friend."

Kouichi stared at him blankly. His brain was having trouble connecting the idea of Takuya getting hit and Kouji. "Wh- I mean… h- wh- it's… _what happened_?"

He shook his head silently, closing his eyes again and lowering his head. When he didn't answer for almost a minute, Kouichi decided he probably wasn't going to get one and looked around again. "Where'd he go?"

"Does it matter?" he whispered. "He's not coming back."

"He'll come back," he said, rolling his eyes despite the situation. "He just needs some time to calm down."

"No. No, not after what happened at the Flame Terminal. I went too far this time."

"Maybe, but he'll come back and you'll work it out," he said, then gripped Kouji's arm and pulled them both to their feet. "Come on. Izumi and Tomoki were making dinner when I left. Maybe he'll even be back by the time we finish eating."

"I don't think I could eat anything right now," he said, and Kouichi gave him a little encouraging shake as he started leading him back to camp.

"You're always telling me to eat when I'm feeling down," he said. Which wasn't strictly true – Kouji quite often just sat him down at the kitchen table and forced him to talk it out. Food just happened to be involved due to proximity. But he knew from having clinically depressed friends that one of the best ways to cheer people up was to surround them with friends. He'd send Izumi to find Takuya, which would both get her out of Kouji's warpath and make sure Takuya really did come back before they had to move on tomorrow morning. Two birds with one stone.

When they reached the clearing, Kouichi shot the others a quick look to make sure they knew to leave Kouji alone, but they didn't need the warning. As soon as Kouji saw the fire Junpei had started, the strange look came back on his face and he turned away, stalking off to a tree on the edge of camp and slumping down beneath it.

"That doesn't look good," Izumi murmured as Kouichi joined her. "What happened?"

"A bad end to a really bad fight," he whispered. "Maybe you should go find Takuya and make sure he's okay."

"Why me?"

"Because you're a girl, meaning you can do emotions and stuff," Junpei said, then yelped when she whacked him.

"And the thing that started all this kind of involved you," Tomoki added with a wince. "It might not be a great idea for you to be around Kouji right now."

She cringed, but nodded her agreement. "I'll wait until some of the meat apples are done, then take them. Give him something to chew on while he talks."

"See? Brilliance!" Junpei said cheerfully, and she rolled her eyes.

It only took a few more minutes for the meat to cook, and she grabbed a handful of the roasted apple-kebobs before setting off into the woods. Kouichi snagged the remaining two and took them over to Kouji while Junpei and Tomoki speared another set.

"Here," said Kouichi, and Kouji nodded as he took one of the apples.

"I… didn't mean to hit him," he said, and Kouichi inwardly sighed as he sank down beside his brother. He'd been kind of hoping Kouji would internalise this until they found Takuya again. But he supposed it was kind of his duty as the elder brother to listen.

"Why d'you think you did, then?"

"Because it's been coming for a while," he said, and picked at the meat apple with one fingernail. "I shoved him against a wall by his throat, in the real world. I don't think I meant to hurt him, but he was talking about… it was like he didn't think he was worth anything to the real world. And I got so mad, and I just wanted to do something to make him stop talking like that. Hurting him never into came into my head, but it just happened. Like tonight."

"You think it might have something to do with the instinct thing?"

"No…" He shook his head, and then closed his eyes with a sigh. "Yes. I don't know. I hate myself right now. I don't know what's wrong with me, it's like I'm doing everything wrong."

"Like with Izumi?" Kouichi asked, and he nodded.

"I shouldn't have said those things. I know women aren't useless or weak or any of that. It's just lately I… Women annoy me lately." He hesitated, then opened his eyes and leaned back against his tree. "Especially ones our age. The way they look at me. And Takuya. They stare at him like he's got some huge spotlight on him. Or those others, who look like he's hurting them just by not acknowledging their presence every single damn second of the day, and…"

"You know," a new voice commented lightly, making them both jump, "that almost makes you a hypocrite."

"Kouji!" Junpei yelled, and they barely had time to look around before a large man suddenly lurched out from around a tree behind him and batted Junpei clear across the clearing in one rough sweep of his arm. He grunted as he hit the dirt, and Kouji yelled in surprise, throwing his apple away as he scrambled to his feet.

"Kouji, look out!" Kouichi cried, before another figure slipped out of the darkness to slam against Kouji's shoulder and knock him to the ground.

"These are the 'great legendary warriors'?" the large man scoffed, grabbing Tomoki by the collar and throwing him after Junpei. "Such weaklings!"

"Tomoki!" Kouichi cried, and he spun around, trying to keep track of everything that was happening, but it was too fast. No sooner had he fixed his gaze on the larger man kicking at the fire than Kouji suddenly cried out as he was yanked up by his hair. "Kouji!"

"Tomoki, Kouji, Mama, help me!" the large man mock-wailed, and Kouichi turned back to look at him, only to be grabbed by the front of his shirt and hauled almost a metre off the ground. He stared down at the stranger, who only scowled in response, shaking him a little. "You're the all-powerful Harbinger of Darkness? You terrified the digital world and five of its great warriors? _You_?"

Kouichi could only blink in response. He was almost certain that the two strangers were humanoid Haato – the tall, lean figure that Kouji was trying to fight off barehanded definitely was, at any rate. His aquamarine hair and dark blue eyes were a giveaway, though he looked much older than the others they'd seen. Something about him reminded Kouichi of Seto Kaiba, and whatever it was, the larger one had it too. This one had the same colour eyes, but was completely different in every other respect. He had slicked-back grey hair and a moustache, and the usual white clothing had been replaced by a dusty red suit. But there was no mistaking that furious look on his face.

"Get – _off_ me!" Kouji shouted, and a light flared from his hands, so brightly that the haato fighting him had to fall back, covering his eyes but still grinning.

"Feisty! I bet he loves that," he said playfully.

"Labu, banter is for the weak," the large one snapped, then growled when Kouji suddenly lunged for his staff. "Don't even think about it!" he shouted, and bodily threw Kouichi into his brother, sending them both tumbling to the ground.

"And that was overkill," Labu replied lazily, his eyes still fixed on Kouji. "We just have to keep their weapons away from them. Keep an eye on the beetle and the completed one, won't you?"

The large one looked around, and Junpei froze mid-movement, but Tomoki just grinned, already scanning the data. "Too late! _Spirit Evolution_!"

Labu sighed loudly, while the other ran forward with his fist raised. "That won't save you!"

Kouichi hesitated, glancing down to where his brother was still tangled beneath him before checking to see if anyone was paying attention. Chakmon had already reappeared and was blasting the unnamed haato with ice, and Labu seemed distracted by… something in the woods. Kouichi bent his head toward Kouji. "I think we can –"

"Shut up and get the weapons before they notice us again!" Kouji hissed, and he flinched, then nodded once before jumping toward his pitchfork.

"Whoop! Did you think I'd forgotten you?" Labu cried, as something large and white barrelled into Kouichi's side and shoved him right into the line of Chakmon's fire. Kouichi screamed as the ice hit him, and Chakmon cried out, immediately throwing his blaster away, but the damage had been done, and surrendering his weapon only gave the haato an opportunity. Labu leapt over Kouichi's fallen body and grabbed Chakmon by the vest, twisting around to slam him first into the dirt, and then into Kouichi's stomach, before throwing the digimon against a tree.

"No! You bastard –" Junpei shouted, lunging for the haato's neck, only to be caught in the stomach by a heavily muscled arm that knocked him back against the trees.

"Stay down, whelp!" the second haato commanded, then snatched up Kouji's staff and Kouichi's pitchfork. He snapped them both, and Kouji hissed as he clambered back to his feet, recognising his best form of defence had just been destroyed. Junpei snarled something under his breath, and Kouji started to grin as he noticed lightning crackling around his friend's fists, but both things were cut off when Labu suddenly appeared behind Junpei, a large, shining white shield thrusting out to slam Junpei to the ground.

"What did we just say about staying down?" he asked calmly, and Junpei rolled over with a grunt to glare up at him. "This has very little to do with you."

"What do you want, then?" snarled Kouji. "If you –"

"I said it has nothing to do with him, not you," he pointed out, and hefted his shield again. "It has everything to do with _you_."

"Me?"

"I'm not sitting on the sidelines again!" Junpei cried, and jumped up with both hands glowing with bright light. He slammed his hands together with what sounded like a thunder clap, and spun in place to aim for the large haato's chest. "Let's see how powerful I am with my human version of _Thor Hammer_!"

"This isn't your show!" Labu snapped, throwing something too fast for them to see. Junpei froze with his fists only an inch from making contact, before his eyes slid closed and he slumped forward.

"Unproven and unpowered, you attack me?" the other yelled, and he thrust out his foot, catching Junpei's chin as he fell and kicking him over near Kouichi. "I could kill you!"

"Junpei!" Kouichi gasped, still winded from the last blow to his stomach but scrambling to check Junpei's pulse. He flinched as his fingers touched a small dart in the crook of Junpei's neck, and he pulled it out, but didn't have time to look at it before a shadow fell over him and he looked up to see the unnamed haato raising his fist.

"Never take your eyes off a dangerous opponent!" he shouted, but couldn't strike before Kouji suddenly appeared between them, his leg spinning out to catch the haato in the side and send him sprawling.

"And you should never assume humans won't know how to fight!" he snapped back, and settled back into his favoured martial arts stance. "Judo black belt, Haato."

"And sporting the righteous anger of a wounded heart," Labu murmured, and Kouji glanced at him over his shoulder. He just smiled darkly. "Power will shine from a heart so torn."

"Kouji, look out!" Kouichi cried, and Kouji could only just manage to get his guard up before the large haato brought the broken staff crashing down on him. Kouji grunted as it rammed into his forearms, but only slid back a foot before managing to throw it back and retaliate with a parrying thrust. He tore the staff from the haato's grip and swung it around, only to have it batted away and be forced to duck a wild punch.

"My, Arogansu," Labu said lightly. "He seems to beating you."

"Dammit, you!" the other shouted, catching a well-aimed kick and flipping Kouji up into the branches above. "I am not here to fight your battles for you!"

Kouji managed to snatch hold of a branch, but his skills were best on the ground, and his attempted spin only managed to divert his path into the tree trunk, which sent him crashing down to a lower branch. He groaned, holding onto the branch for dear life as he listened to the haato below. He could hear them moving around, making sure Junpei and Tomoki were unconscious as they waited for him to come down again.

"Takuya could do this. I _will_ do this," he breathed, then slid around the branch to drop back to earth. He landed badly, but managed to correct himself after a quick stumble, only to then be slammed into the trunk again by Labu's shield.

"Kouji!" Kouichi lurched to his feet, and he made it three steps before Arogansu grabbed the back of his shirt and spun him around, pushing him back into the dirt.

"Big Brother –!" Kouji gasped, before Labu shoved him against the trunk again, forcing him to meet his gaze. "You…"

"For someone so cold, you care about others far too much," he said quietly. "Where is the one you care for most, I wonder?"

He stared back at him blankly, and then glanced over to the others. Tomoki had de-evolved, as they always did when knocked unconscious, while Junpei was lying broken and unmoving in the ashes of the fire. Kouichi was still conscious, but only just; struggling to keep himself upright. And Kouji was pinned, and had no idea where Takuya and Izumi were. "Dammit…"

"I'm talking to you," Labu said, and then gripped Kouji's chin in one hand and forced him to look around. "Where is your most important person?"

"Takuya's gonna kill you for hurting his friends," Kouji snarled, but Labu only smiled.

"That's cute… But I think he's going to be a little angrier over what I'm about to do to you."

He twitched a little as his heart denied it, but kept his voice steady as he asked, "And what's that?"

"You'll see. Now, tell me. Where is he? Arogansu has to find him."

Kouji frowned, and Labu's smirk widened as he leaned in closer, pressing his shield harder against Kouji's front. "Between you and me, I'm hoping he heard the fight, so he'll have come running. With any luck, he'll appear and see you all prone and helpless like you are, and –"

"Guys!" Takuya's voice broke through the clearing, and Labu hissed out a kind of giggling cheer. Izumi and Takuya sprinted into camp, only sparing a quick glance before Izumi flipped onto her hands and Takuya snatched up the broken ends of Kouichi's pitchfork, yelling in threat and frustration. "What the hell are you doing, Kouji? Fight back!"

"I'm pinned down!" he shouted back, forgetting his relief in a sudden spike of irritation.

"Big freaking deal!" he snapped, and threw the trident of the broken pitchfork straight at Labu's head. The haato jumped and spun around, bringing his shield up so the pitchfork bounced off. The movement naturally released Kouji, who lurched away from the tree only to fall backward as Izumi's Tornado Gamba thudded into Arogansu's chest. The hit broke through his suit and skin, but rather than digitised data or even blood, flames erupted out from the wound in a wave, driving Izumi and Kouji back on instinct.

"You think fire's gonna scare _me_?" Takuya yelled, and Arogansu turned toward him as he ran forward, grabbing the second half of the pitchfork.

"I am going to enjoy killing you, digihuman!" he roared, lashing out a fist, but Takuya only stabbed it with his makeshift weapon, ducked under his arm and punched him in the face. The force of the blow made Arogansu's head snap around, but beyond that it didn't seem to affect him. He used his uninjured hand to send a returning punch, and Takuya grunted as he was shoved back a metre.

"Hey, bastard!" he snapped, and Kouji flinched when he realised Takuya was talking to him. His cheek had already swelled, and it had turned a good portion of his face an angry red.

"I…"

"Would you get over here and help me fight this thing?" he demanded, and swiped his fist over the mark on his jaw that Arogansu had caused.

Kouji hesitated, instinctively glancing at Kouichi, but that only made Takuya's voice rise in pitch.

"Now is not the time to be answering your own freaking question!" he shrieked, then flinched and dove out of the way of a punch aimed for the back of his head. He hit the dirt by Kouji's broken staff, and he used one hand to grab the longest half while the other flipped him back to his feet so he could return to the fight with Arogansu.

"Attack me all you like, digihuman!" Arogansu shouted as he caught Takuya's blow with his forearm. The wound burst into flame like the first, incinerating the staff, but the fire only burned for a second before all the flames covering the haato's body suddenly died down, leaving him completely healed and unmarred. Takuya grit his teeth, his eyes flicking over the former wounds, and Arogansu smirked. "I will always recover from any wound! I am the phoenix! I am invincible!"

Izumi stared up at him from where she was crouching over Kouichi, horrified, but Takuya just forced a grin.

"Phoenix like hell. It's just that no one's ever hit you right!" he said, and ran forward with another yell. "I'll just keep punching 'til I find the right spot!"

"Uh, excuse me, digihuman?" Labu called, and Takuya leapt away, as if the shout had been an attack. He spun around toward Kouji, who blanched, realising the call had come from behind him. He made to turn, but had barely moved before Labu suddenly gripped his ponytail and yanked down so Kouji's head snapped back and exposed his neck.

"Kouji!"

"Yes. As I was saying," Labu said, as he held up his dart again. "Do you see this?"

"No!" Takuya and Izumi both started running, and Kouichi scrambled toward him, but all too slow. All Kouji saw was the dart coming for his throat before he sank into freezing darkness.

* * *

><p>The Judgemon exploded in a burst of light, and Mai, more commonly known as the Queen of the Gambling Circuit (or Jounouchi's sometimes-girlfriend), straightened up, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "I always hated that card," she announced, then looked around to where Jounouchi was commanding a tribe of goblins to beat up a Guitar King. She grinned, setting her hand on her hip. "I think he's defeated."<p>

"Not until I pound him into smithereens!" he said without looking around.

"You don't think there's a little psychological issue here?" she asked, exchanging glances with her own solid vision monsters. "You have some pent up rage about pretty boys that attract girls with guitars?"

He didn't answer for a moment, avoiding her gaze. "Maybe."

"I wouldn't worry, Jounouchi. I find up pent up rage particularly appealing in younger men," she said playfully, and he gave her an odd look, his distraction causing the goblins to let up and allow the Guitar King to disperse.

The street was clear, and they both lowered their Duel Disks and walked close, Jounouchi scrubbing at his hair as he looked around at their combined army of Duel Monsters. "I think we're winning. Four days' straight duelling, and today this street was the worst I've seen."

"With a whole seven monsters on it," Mai observed. "I guess those kids you told me about are making good on their side of the bargain."

"Yeah… you know, I never thought I'd say this, but I really wish we were the heroes of this adventure. I feel kinda useless doing cleanup duty for a bunch of kids I don't even know."

"Well, I'm _usually_ a sideliner, so I don't have much to complain about. But I can see where you're coming from."

"I mean, it's bad enough being the sidekick for a spiky-haired midget and his three-thousand year dead pharaoh, but—"

"—providing cover fire for a bunch of fifteen year olds isn't exactly the way I planned to spend my twenty-ninth year…" she agreed, and he smirked at her.

"Twenty-ninth?"

She glared at him, and he grinned back.

"So, since we seem to be done here," he said thoughtfully, glancing around one more time. "I'm kinda hungry. Wanna buy a handsome guy some grub?"

"Sure. Where can I find him?"

"Hey! I've been battling Duel Monsters for almost a week now! I deserve some respect!"

She grinned and skipped forward to grab up his hand in both of her own, playing the schoolgirl she'd never really been. "Well, if the handsome guy's a no show… wanna buy a pretty lady a drink, cowboy?"

"If I can find one," he shot back, and she giggled, leaning in to kiss the side of his mouth and end the argument. They both shut down their Duel Disks and turned to head off, but hadn't taken two steps before a bright, shining light cast long shadows in front of them. They blinked at the darkness for a second, then turned back again, Mai's grip tightening on Jounouchi's hand.

Spread across the street in front of them and reaching back around the corner, hundreds of adorable Duel Monsters crowded around to peer at them, smiling their variously disturbing smiles.

"So much for lunch," Jounouchi muttered, throwing his Duel Disk out to activate it again.

"Those are light monsters," said Mai, releasing Jounouchi's hand to turn on her own Disk before she looked at him properly. "Sure, there's a lot of them, but they're not exactly dangerous."

"Only if they're not played right," he said, and then met her gaze. "_Yuugi_ uses light monsters."

She did a short double-take. "Yuugi can beat Yami…"

"…supposedly the most powerful Duellist living or dead, yeah," he finished for her, and they both yanked five cards from their decks before turning to face the army. "We're kinda screwed, Mai."

She bared her teeth as a Silent Magician Level Zero stepped forward, almost stumbling over her robes as she focussed on keeping her staff upright. "I am not getting beaten by something that cute. You can call Yuugi for advice – I'm going to duel. My turn!"

* * *

><p>Takuya didn't see Kouji slump into Labu's waiting arm. He was focussed on the dart; watching it sink into Kouji's pale skin and then dissolve into a fine mist that then seemed to be absorbed by his clothing. After that, Takuya wasn't given time to react before Arogansu was suddenly in front of him again, and a large fist filled his vision.<p>

As he was punched clear across the clearing, Izumi swept the air around them into a large ball between her outstretched arms, barely aware of what she was doing. "Let him go!" she shouted, and thrust the air toward Labu. For something only visible by the rush of dirt following it, the attack was impressive, but Labu swung his shield around again to block. The pressure pushed him back several feet, and he had to drop the shield at the last second to keep Kouji in his arms, leaving his head and shoulders unprotected. Kouichi gripped the nothing in the air beside him and then threw out his arm with a shout. For a second, no one knew what he had done, until an arc of solid shadow lashed across Labu's face. It cut deep and long, slicing his cheek and then his ear, and he fell back with a scream.

"Arogansu! Help me!"

"Not now!" the other haato yelled, as Takuya caught Arogansu's thrusting fist in both hands and shoved him back. Takuya then spun around, his leg rising to crash against Arogansu's neck, and the haato had to move fast to remain on his feet, swearing loudly.

"_Brezza Petalo_!" Izumi shouted, flinging another wave of air against Labu's shield to force it higher, and Kouichi threw another black dart at Labu's feet.

Arogansu gripped Takuya's wrist, mid-attack, and then flung him up into the air, but Takuya had gripped back in return and refused to let go. He kicked out as the momentum pulled him back down, and his foot forced Arogansu's neck back so hard and fast that it audibly snapped. Fire exploded outward and Takuya broke the hold to flip away, but whatever the attack had done, it hadn't lasted. Even as Takuya hit the dirt, Arogansu was shaking his head, letting it flop brokenly around his shoulders until the flames died down and his neck healed. He bared his teeth in what could have been a grin. "You can't destroy the phoenix, digihuman."

"Arogansu!" Labu screamed, and he clutched Kouji to his chest with one hand as he used the other to completely cover himself with the shield. "Forget him! I'm in danger!"

"So go! Take your prize and hide!" he shouted back, then flinched back as Takuya lunged forward, fire building up around his hands.

"That bastard is no one's prize!" he yelled, and leapt onto Arogansu's chest to jump over him, shoving him away as he dove for Labu and Kouji. "You let him go!"

"No!" Labu caught him with the shield, and only Takuya's inhuman balance kept him from bouncing off with the returning thrust. Labu kept their eyes locked, but he spoke to Arogansu despite it. "Even if I left, these three would only turn on you! You would not win against the angered digihuman and two furious legendary warriors! We must retreat!"

Arogansu hesitated a second, and Kouichi took the moment. He lashed out his arm, and a short, black wave shot out of his fingertips to slice through Arogansu's suit, fire erupting around the wound and up over his hip. He snarled, turning to face him, but hadn't taken so much as a step before Izumi had spun onto her hands and begun preparing to attack.

"Fine!" he shouted, and both haato immediately burst into flames, white smoke exploding outward and making both Izumi and Kouichi cough, though Takuya only stumbled back as he was thrown from Labu's shield. Misjudging the distance to fall, he dropped onto his back, striking his head against the dirt and so failing to get up before the smoke cleared and their enemies were gone.

He stared at the scorched ground in front of him, then up and around the clearing, but there was nothing left. Izumi was crouching next to another scorch mark, staring back at him, and Kouichi was gaping at nothing. All three of them looked around at each other, horrified.

The haato had taken Kouji with them.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	18. Making Connections

_**Rebooted – Chapter Seventeen**_

Making Connections

**TRUFAX:** Noah's brainwashing was always slightly creepier than conventional TV-brainwashing to me, simply because of how he did it and the way he acted afterward. Okay, so he used Mokuba's desire for a more attentive big brother (and some useful computer programming), but not only did Mokuba technically have a caring older brother (however distant), but Noah's idea of attention was a little over the top, don't you think? Mostly because he didn't understand what brothers were really like, but still…

* * *

><p>For several long seconds, Kouji felt nothing.<p>

He was still and warm and comfortable, and it took him a while to realise he was beneath sheets on a soft bed. After another second, he remembered why he was asleep.

"Guys!" he shouted, flinging the sheets off him so he could get up, only to freeze at the sight that greeted him. Flamon was sitting beside the bed, shuffling a deck of Duel Monster cards and gazing back at him with the kind of loaded expression most people didn't think he was capable of. Kouji stared back at him, but the digimon didn't speak, just continued shuffling the deck.

"Takuya… what… what happened?" he asked, and looked around. The walls were made of sparkling crystal, and Kouji realised this had to be Seraphimon's castle. "What happened to Labu and Arogansu? How'd we get here?"

"After Labu knocked you out with that dart of his, Kouichi and Izumi used some powers they didn't know they had. After a few complications… I turned into Flamon, and we beat them into the dirt," he said calmly, still shuffling. "I carried you back here."

"Oh… and Junpei? Tomoki? Are they okay?"

He nodded, and Kouji leaned back a little, remembering everything else that had happened that night. "Are you?"

"I'm fine. We're not," he added, and Kouji winced.

"Takuya, I…"

"Yeah, I don't wanna hear it," he said, and then suddenly stopped shuffling. He hesitated, holding the cards upright for a moment before setting them down on bedside table. "I'm thinking that maybe while you're a jerk… you might be a justified jerk."

He blinked, leaning forward in confusion. "What?"

Takuya cringed, one fang protruding from his lips as he looked off to the side. "I… Okay, so, you're right, you know? There's a lot of stuff back home that I can't just abandon. My family's probably going crazy as it is now, with me only being missing for a few days. How'd they be if I never came back? And you guys would be totally lost without me," he added, but Kouji didn't smile.

"If you understand all that, why are you still Flamon?"

The other fang emerged as Takuya bit his lip in a soft, sad smile. "Because this is who I am. Whether any of us like it or not, I'm too much a digimon to be just a human. I can't pretend to be something I'm not."

Kouji gazed at him silently for a minute, and then shifted across the bed so he could reach out with one hand to squeeze Takuya's shoulder. The band there made it hard, and Kouji ended up with his hand halfway up Takuya's neck, thumb resting on a pulse point under his chin. Takuya finally looked around at him, and Kouji couldn't smile, but he tried to anyway. "Flamon, Agunimon, Ardhamon, Vrytramon… whoever you look and sound like," he murmured, "Takuya is always Takuya."

"Kouji…"

Somehow, the deck of cards glinted in the light of the crystal walls, but Kouji didn't look around. Getting things back on track was all that mattered, right now.

* * *

><p>"<em>Dammit<em>!"

Izumi winced as Kouichi's darkness exploded again, the pressure of it ruffling their hair and once again blowing out Takuya's attempt to get a fire going. Their quasi-leader looked up from under his eyebrows for a second, then just started rubbing his sticks together again.

"It's not fair," Kouichi said as he resumed his pacing around the clearing. "We were winning! We were using all sorts of new powers. How could we lose? And lose _Kouji_, of all people?"

Izumi opened her mouth to answer, but then thought better of it and turned back to Tomoki and Junpei. Neither had woken up yet, and until they did, Takuya refused to move from the clearing.

"Why would they take him? Labu said Arogansu was looking for Takuya… but Labu also said something about it having everything to do with Kouji," Kouichi muttered. "If they wanted to kill him, they wouldn't have taken him. They must want to do something to him… Like what that Torasuto did to –!"

Izumi glanced up at a sudden flare of heat, but Takuya didn't look up from the charcoal remains of the sticks he had just accidentally incinerated. He licked his lips, then reached for another few pieces of wood.

"I… I gotta go find him," Kouichi said suddenly, and he spun on his heel to start walking across the clearing, back toward the last town. "I can't stay here waiting, I've gotta –"

"Stop!" Takuya ordered, and the other two jumped, their eyes widening as they looked at him. He still hadn't looked up, his hair hanging over his eyes, but his voice was dark and heavy, angry in a way Izumi hadn't heard for years. "Sit down, Kouichi. Splitting up doesn't help anyone in these situations."

Kouichi hesitated, the almost instinctual urge to follow Takuya's command warring with his need to protect his little brother. "But Kouji –"

"Kouji is big enough and mean enough to handle himself for an evening," Takuya snapped. "When the haato had me, they extracted my data over a week, to keep it all in control. Kouji'll be fine."

Izumi bit her lip, glancing at Kouichi for backup before asking, "You and Kouji had that big fight today, are you sure you're not –"

Takuya slammed his fist against the ground and she froze, her jaw clicking shut on impulse. He finally looked up, and she finally remembered where she'd heard that voice before. A pitch-black cavern, fear of a hidden enemy, the terror of knowing her own allies could kill her and awareness that she might do the same… Ardhamon had slammed his tail against the ground and yelled at them all to calm down. That voice… that expression… it commanded attention and obedience. It was blank and controlled, but power radiated beneath the surface, and anyone could see it burning in his eyes. She swallowed, hunching a little further in on herself.

"I don't like Kouji all that much at the moment, that's true," Takuya said coldly. "But I'll get over it. And when I do, I'll want him safe and unharmed. I know that, and so I'm not about to let my current feelings let him get hurt, alright?"

She hesitated, then nodded minutely, and Takuya glared at Kouichi until he did too. He then lowered his eyes back to his sticks. "We have no idea where they took him, so if we split up now, we'll have no idea where the others went to look, either. We will all end up lost, separated, and easy to pick off one by one. Even with these new powers we're getting, we're not strong enough to beat the haato on our own. But together, we've always been able to beat anything. Even if one of us isn't physically present," he added with another glance at Kouichi. "And Kouji may be gone, but his backpack is still here. Meaning the Duel Disk communication thingy is still here. Meaning we can contact the other side and ask them to try and find Kouji for us. Get it?"

Kouichi stared at him for a second, then managed a grimacing half-smile and sat down beside Izumi. "I thought Kouji was the strategist."

"Yeah, but I'm the team player," he replied, then sighed and went back to his fire. "Not to mention that today kind of proved my theory that no one should go off on their own without telling the others where they're going…"

"It wasn't your fault," Izumi said immediately, but Takuya's eyebrows only lowered further.

"Yeah, it was. He could've fought Labu off, but he was distracted," he muttered. "But jeez, I mean, how else was I s'posed to react? Stupid jerk…"

They continued watching him mutter to himself for a few moments, before Izumi turned back to the others. She sighed, sliding her hand over Junpei's brow, but a pleased mumble made her jerk back. They all blinked, and Izumi pushed forward again, laying her palm against his cheek. "Junpei?"

He hummed in his throat, turning his head into her hand with a sleepy smile. "Izumi… my beauty…"

"Junpei!" she said, blushing but unable to hide her smile.

He just giggled, and Takuya and Kouichi exchanged glances, their eyebrows shooting up in dual recognition of the tone.

"Uh… Izumi, uhm," Kouichi began. "We – that is – you should – I mean, we all need water, and uh –"

"Not now, Junpei's waking up!" she said, and leaned down, setting her other hand on his shoulder. "Junpei! Open your eyes!"

"Seriously, Izumi, let him go," Takuya said, but the grin fighting its way over his face ruined any chance of inspiring obedience.

"Anything for you, my beautiful butterfly…" Junpei murmured, and he started to lean upwards, his eyelids cracking open. As his gaze focussed on Izumi, his smile broadened, and he reached up to hold her hand against his cheek, until Kouichi jumped into his line of sight behind Izumi. Junpei blinked, his gaze shifting, and Kouichi waved his hands in warning.

"You're awake," Izumi sighed in relief, and Junpei blinked again as he focussed on her. "You were starting to scare us."

"I – I've been… sleeping?" he croaked, and Kouichi nodded hard in contrast to Izumi's gentle smile.

"Labu knocked you out with this weird sort of dart," she explained. "Tomoki's still out cold from Arogansu's punch, and you were already unconscious when he started kicking you around, so we were really worried that you might have a concussion or something."

A blush spread across Junpei's cheeks. "I… I dreamt that I… I thought I beat Arogansu, and you got Labu, and –"

"Pretty much the opposite, Junpei," said Takuya, and he finally abandoned his attempts at the fire to come stand by his friends. "Arogansu beat the tar outta you and Tomoki, after Labu knocked you out. Labu got Kouji, too, and they disappeared with him just as we were starting to win. Try and sit up if you're not too hurt, yeah?"

Junpei's blush came on a little stronger at Takuya's raised eyebrow. He glanced at Izumi, realised she hadn't caught on to the implications of his pleased sleep-mutterings, and immediately jerked up to sitting, crossing his legs and balancing with his hands between his knees. His body clearly wasn't up to the movement, because he then cringed and hunched forward with a gasp, but eventually managed to push himself straight again. "Ow," he said finally, and Takuya sighed, crouching down in front of him.

"I said 'if you're not too hurt', you idiot," he said, then looked over at Tomoki, who was groaning as he came back to consciousness. "Na, Izumi, can you check on Tomoki? Maybe being evolved when he blacked out made things worse, rather than better, like it used to."

She blinked at him, then frowned at Junpei. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Ah – yeah," he managed, wincing with his smile. "Just fine."

She hesitated, then nodded and stood up, using Takuya's head as a balance as she jumped over him to reach Tomoki. The boys watched her for a second, before Takuya's smile turned lecherous and he spun back to Junpei. "Perverted little beetle, aren't ya?"

"Shut up!" he cried, blushing even further. "It wasn't like that!"

"Sure sounded like it," Kouichi observed, and Junpei flinched back.

"You too, Kouichi?"

Takuya chuckled, leaning forward. "He's just saying that because it's distracting him from Kouji being taken. Me, on the other hand… I really wanna know. How far did you get with her?"

"Why, you…!" He lashed out with his fist, but even laughing as he was, Takuya dodged it without much effort. Junpei glared at him for a moment, then sighed and shook his head. "I'm serious. It wasn't like that. It was… it wasn't even like a dream."

Kouichi rolled his eyes and turned toward Izumi, but Takuya's laughing died down into a smile, and he shifted, folding his arms over his knees. "Yeah? What was it like?"

"I'm not –"

"You were attacked by a weird dart that puts people to sleep, Junpei," he said, his suddenly sharp tone making Kouichi look around again. "If you weren't just dreaming, you were probably being attacked. I need to know how."

Junpei stared at him for a moment, then sighed. "It… it was really real. I had no idea I'd been knocked out, because the dream started with Labu throwing something at me. It hit my shoulder, and it hurt, but it didn't do anything. I just kept on fighting Arogansu, using all these new powers that seemed like Blitzmon's, but more, and…" He lifted one hand to stare at it. "You refused to get involved in the fight. You just stood on the sidelines and told the others that this was my fight – this was a fight for my pride. I couldn't beat them both, though, and even though you told her not to, Izumi came to fight by my side. With her taking on Labu, it was easy for me to destroy Arogansu, and together, we beat them. It was a hard fight, but we did it, all on our own, without you or Kouji or anyone to save us."

Takuya frowned, turning his head to look at him side-on. "The two of you working together, like a partnership?"

"It was awesome! Like it was meant to be!"

"And then…?" he prompted. "Was that the end of the dream?"

"No. No, then… then, we were all walking back to the Forest Terminal. You and Kouji were still fighting, so Kouichi and Tomoki were trying to get you guys to make up, leaving me and Izumi alone together. And we talked… and… and she said that fighting with me was the most alive she'd felt since Susanoomon. And I told her I felt the same. And she said it made her realise just how important I am to her. And… and she said…"

"She confessed," Takuya guessed quietly, and Junpei nodded, wincing against how pathetic he knew that made him sound – even if they all knew it was all he'd really wanted for the last five years.

"She said that after we'd beaten the haato and gone back to the real world, and after she graduated high school, that maybe we could think about getting married."

"_Married_?" the other two squawked, and he blushed again, ducking in shame.

"I know, I know, but…! And we were just talking about that, and… when I… when I started thinking this was so perfect, that it couldn't get any better, she asked me to kiss her, and I –"

"You woke up," Takuya guessed, and Junpei nodded. Takuya frowned, lifting a hand to his chin as he considered. "The perfect dream, huh…?"

* * *

><p>"Kaiba!"<p>

Seto paused, glancing over his shoulder at the familiar shout. He hesitated, then resigned himself to the inevitable and turned to let Anzu Mazaki catch up after leaving the elevator. "I thought you were in America," he said in cold greeting, and she grinned.

"The world is in dire peril, and America has costumed heroes to save it. Where would Japan's heroes be without their cheerleaders?" she asked playfully, and he rolled his eyes before turning back down the hall.

"And where is Yuugi?" he asked. "Normally you're tailing him like a lovesick puppy."

"Actually, that's why I'm here," she said, gesturing to their surroundings. "Katsuya and Mai called Yami out to give them a hand against the current wave of Duel Monsters, and so Yuugi decided to check up on the kids he was telling me about. But I got distracted by an old school friend I met in the lobby, and we got separated."

"Then perhaps you should go find him, instead of bothering me," he suggested, but, like most of their group, she was used to his attitude and only smiled in response.

"So, are you going to check up on these mysterious kids? Is that why you're down here in the lower levels?"

He didn't answer, which she correctly interpreted as affirmation. "Good, because I swear I'm lost. For a theme park, KaibaLand isn't exactly user-friendly."

"So you tell me every time you come here," he said irritably. "And, as _I_ tell _you_ every time you come here, this is not the theme park – these are the testing laboratories. They are not supposed to be accessible to the public. Nor to its cheerleaders," he added, but she just waved him off.

"Between Yuugi and Mokuba, I can get everywhere in this building. You can take it up with one of them."

"If you'll recall, Mutou no longer works for me," he pointed out, as they began walking down the hall. "Yami made sure of that."

"And the minute you make him give back his security card, I'll believe that actually means something."

He scowled, but didn't otherwise dignify that with a response, and they continued in a companionable silence that neither would ever admit to. After a minute, they reached a door marked 'LSVR Chamber' and Seto swiped his card-shaped pendant through a reader beside it. The door swept open, and he led the way into a large room filled with monitors and life-supporting Virtual Reality pods.

Mokuba was sitting at the main station, his laptop open on his knees and a large, caffeine-filled drink in his left hand. He grinned when he saw them. "Big Brother! Anzu! What're you doing here?"

"I've come to say hi to my favourite hacker," she said, and brushed past Seto to lean over Mokuba's shoulders in a bear hug. "How have you been?"

"Bored out of my mind. Do you know how hard it is to stare at unchangeable code for four days straight?"

"No," she said honestly, but looked down at the code-monitor anyway, only glancing up as Seto stepped up to join her.

"Those are two of my virus-attack points," Seto said absently, narrowing his eyes. "What's that broken code between them?"

"Kouji," Mokuba said, gesturing to one of the pods across the room. "The Light one. Looks like they've captured him."

"That code is revolting," he muttered. "It's completely incomprehensible."

Mokuba smiled at him, knowing perfectly well that Seto was almost as bad with puzzles as Yuugi and wouldn't let this one go. "Most of them are. Except for Tomoki –" He paused to type in a few commands and bring up a different set of codes. "Tomoki is the only clean set of coding, but even he's getting warped, the longer he stays in there. Junpei's even incomplete – there's not enough coding in his data set to make an entire human. I don't know what's going on with it."

Seto scowled, and Anzu raised her eyebrows, nonplussed. "It just looks like a bunch of numbers, to me."

"Well, you're just dense, aren't you?" Mokuba shot back, and she casually cuffed him over the back of the head. He laughed, but a beep drew his attention back to the monitor just as a collection of lights shone on the other side of the station. He and Anzu both looked up as five holographic teenagers appeared in front of them, fizzing with static.

"_Ohmigod!_" Izumi squealed, pointing at Anzu. "_Anzu Mazaki! I am such a fan of yours!_"

She blinked back, and Takuya frowned at her curiously while Kouichi cut them all off. "_Who cares?_" he snapped, before turning to Mokuba. "_We need your help._"

"Tracking down Kouji?" he guessed.

"_How'd you know?_" asked Junpei, and Mokuba gestured to his laptop.

"I saw your codes interact with two viruses, and now he's with them. I figured you lost him," he said, and ignored the dark glares Takuya and Kouichi both gave him at that. "What happened, anyway? I could barely read the code at some points."

"_Does it matter?_" Kouichi snapped, and Mokuba grimaced, tapping the keys to go back to the original coding. Emo teenagers in bad moods were never fun to deal with.

"According to my info here, he's with two viruses – one with an infinite restoration loop and another that creates image data."

"Huh?" Anzu asked, but the kids were all exchanging glances.

"_The haato we just fought,_" Tomoki said quietly. "_One of them could get hit really badly and seem completely broken, but he'd just recover anyway._"

"_Beyond that, he wasn't very powerful,_" said Junpei. "_Just big and strong like a wrestler. But he said he was invincible._"

"There's no such thing," Seto muttered, staring at Kouji's broken code. "Anyone that's invincible just hasn't been hit the right way."

Takuya blinked, and Izumi glanced at him before looking around again. "_But Arogansu –_"

"'Arrogance'," Anzu corrected automatically, and they all stared at her.

"_What?_"

She raised her eyebrows. "The word is 'arrogance'. I let Yami get away with his bad pronunciation because he would go on a long and boring rant about how it doesn't matter in ordinary conversation, let alone when you're off saving the world with the flip of a card. But it does, and the word is 'arrogance'."

They continued staring at her for a long moment, before Junpei tilted his head and took a half-step forward. "_That's the haato –_"

"'Heart'," she corrected, and he shook his head.

"_It's his name. Their name. Haato, Arogansu, Labu, Torasuto, Modesuti, Potensharu…_"

"'Heart', 'Arrogance', 'Love', 'Trust', 'Modesty', 'Potential'…" she returned, and Tomoki furrowed his brow, looking up at Takuya.

"_You know… I don't know much English, but some of those words kind of… match,_" he said thoughtfully. "_Doesn't 'trust' mean to have faith? Didn't Torasuto say that she hated all the faith you have in us?_"

Takuya frowned at him for a moment, but anything he might have said was cut off by Kouichi. "_It doesn't matter! Kouji is being held captive by the haato and you are wasting any time he might have by talking about stuff that doesn't matter!_"

"_That's right,_" Izumi murmured, turning back to the adults. "_Arogansu was made of fire or something, because every time we hit him, he just burst into flame and recovered as if he'd never been hit. The other one – Labu – he had this huge shield, and these little darts that… that… they…_"

"_They put Junpei and Kouji to sleep,_" said Takuya. "_While he was asleep, Junpei had a very realistic dream that things had turned out just the way he wanted them to. I think it might be part of the attack._"

Mokuba nodded, gazing at the code. "It fits. Image data might take form as a dream, in your world. And Kouji's code isn't moving because it's surrounded by image data, so…"

They exchanged glances again, before Takuya sighed and folded his arms behind his head. "_Well, in any case, we need to find him and get him back. Do you know which way we should head?_"

"I… look, I know where he is in data and code, but I can't tell you where it literally is," he said blankly. "It's not encrypted… I can tell you there's a bunch of things called Gotsu around, and –"

"_Gotsumon?_ _Are they all underground?_" asked Takuya.

"Uh… the Gotsu… mon are hidden by environment data, so I guess…"

"_Great! Thanks!_" he said cheerfully, and clapped his hands as he turned back to the others. "_The guardian stones. Where Kouji found his beast spirit._"

"_What would they be doing there?_" Junpei asked, but he just shrugged.

"_Why be anywhere?_"

"_Yeah, but that place is –_"

"_The guardian stones are connected to Gamamon,_" Takuya snapped irritably, and Anzu and Mokuba exchanged glances at the sudden change in mood. The other kids all shifted uncomfortably, but Takuya didn't seem to care. "_The haato are somehow connected to our spirits. I don't care if it doesn't make sense; this is the best lead we have. Do you have a better idea, Junpei?_"

"_I didn't say it was a _bad_ idea,_" he muttered, and Takuya took a deep breath before turning back to Mokuba.

"_Do you know if Kouji is alright?_"

"So far," he said, still staring at him for the rapid attitude changes. "It's not like when you were trapped by the virus the other day – that time, your programming was frozen while bits of code were removed from your data. So far, Kouji's programming is just being inundated with image files. No real attack, far as I can see."

"_Okay, thanks. We'll go check out the place we think you're talking about and contact you if we're wrong,_" he said, and held up one hand while nodding to Tomoki. "_Thanks for your help._"

"Good luck," Anzu said, just before the image disappeared. She frowned, then looked around at Mokuba. "Is he always like that?"

"No… usually he's a lot like Jounouchi – the stupid guy that always ends up right, somehow," he said, and she bit her lip around her smile, while Mokuba looked back down at the coding. "But he's pretty close to that Kouji guy. Maybe he's worried, or something."

"Idiots always worry about things that don't need their concern," Seto muttered, straightening up again with a closed look on his face. "Look at Mutou and the bonkotsu. Both should be perfectly fine without the other, but never are."

"They're that close?" she asked, glancing down at Mokuba. "No wonder he's cranky. Every time Yuugi gets kidnapped, between Yami and Katsuya's combined freak outs, I'm always amazed the city's still standing by the time we get him back."

"And this is made even better by the fact none of these kids are in their right minds at the moment!" Mokuba said cheerfully.

"Maybe that's what the broken coding is," Seto muttered to himself, leaning down to peer at the monitor again. "Now I look at it, that virus… if it were moved…" He suddenly straightened up and turned on his heel. "I'll be in my office. Don't bother me."

Anzu opened her mouth to comment, but Seto had already disappeared around the doorframe, leaving her alone with Mokuba and the sleeping children.

* * *

><p>"Let. Us. On."<p>

"Nn-oh."

Kouichi scowled at the Angler Trailmon, stretching his fingers as he wished he knew how to create some kind of dark weapon to threaten it with. But all he had figured out how to do was transform a pointy object into Lowemon's trident or call on what he had decided to call Dark Darts. His pitchfork had been destroyed and his darts would permanently damage whatever they touched, meaning he would suffer an earful from Izumi if he used them on a trailmon.

"Heeeey, Trailmon-san…" Izumi cooed, sidling up to Angler with Kouichi's coat hanging from one shoulder. "Won't you let us ride? Please?"

"Uh… well… um…" It bounced on its rail a few times, making Tomoki and Junpei stumble for balance while Takuya immediately dropped into a crouch, cringing as he gripped the ground. "Where are you going?"

"We'd like to go to the Gotsumon's Guardian Sto-"

"No!" Angler yelped, scooting back on its rails a few metres. "No way! I'm sorry, pretty lady, but that is one place I won't go for anyone, not even one so beautiful."

"Why not?" asked Junpei. "I know there's no station around there, but there are rails that –"

"Not anymore, there is not," it said, and chugged back toward them. "The rails were all destroyed years ago."

"What?" asked Tomoki, and Angler flicked its lantern the better to see him in the fading light.

"All gone," it said. "Trailmon rumours say that the spirit of Gamamon destroyed all the tracks surrounding the stones, to protect his former comrades. One of my brothers was deleted in the blast, and so I will not go there."

Takuya frowned, walking forward to stand beside Kouichi. "Then would you take us somewhere nearby? As close as you'll go?"

"I do not know… I have the stops to make…" it said, and Junpei stepped forward, tilting his head curiously.

"Just how old are you, Angler?"

"I – That's not polite!"

"Were you around during the war between the Legendary Warriors and Cherubimon?" he asked, and stepped closer still, so he could lean in and whisper. "You remember Duskmon? The terrifying, corrupted, Legendary Warrior of Darkness?"

Angler laughed. "You are not a Dark warrior! You are too over-fed!"

"No," he agreed, flushing despite himself, and then gestured to Kouichi. "He is, though. And his little brother's been kidnapped. I bet you can guess what kind of mood he's in."

"Are you done talking?" Kouichi demanded, folding his arms and unconsciously tapping his foot, right on cue. "Can we go yet?"

"And that's the Lady of the Wind, Izumi," Junpei continued. "Pretty girl… impatient warrior, though. That's Tomoki, Master of Ice, who will do anything to save his friends. Oh, and Takuya, the Great Warrior of Flame, who is currently missing his battle partner and so is a _little_ uncontrollable right now… And they're all gonna be pretty mad if they have to _walk_ to save Kouji, the Grand Strategist of the Shining Pair."

Angler hesitated, sliding back on its rails, but Junpei just followed it the few steps, and leaned on it when it stopped. "So, Angler, my fishy friend, you're gonna let us ride. Or I'm going to have to tell them you're not going to let us ride."

The trailmon slowly looked up, but when it did, all it could see was Izumi standing with his arms folded over her stomach, frowning impatiently, Tomoki fidgeting with his digivice, Kouichi still tapping his foot, and Takuya heaving a deep sigh, chewing his lip as he stared at the light of Angler's lantern. It hesitated one last second, and then threw its lantern straight up and out in a salute. "Welcome aboard, Returned Legendary Warriors! I shall carry you to the furthest point I go!"

"Really?" Izumi cried, clapping her hands as Kouichi and Junpei dashed for the carriage doors. "Comotzione!"

"Thanks!" Tomoki called, and he patted Angler's side as he and Izumi ran after the others.

Takuya hesitated, then waved to the others to shut the doors. "I'll join you in a little while!" he called, and then stepped forward, spreading his hands as he looked up at Angler. "Do you mind if I ride up top? I'd like to ask you some questions."

"Sure, sure, whatever you like," it said shakily, and Takuya grinned his thanks before clambering up into the driver's cab. He got himself settled, looked back to check the carriage doors were shut, and then patted Angler's roof, indicating they could go. It let out a burst of steam from its wheels and then set off, quickly building speed.

"So, you said Gamamon destroyed the Trailmon rails?" Takuya asked, leaning forward as if that would let him see Angler's eye. "I heard Vrytramon's spirit destroyed the foundations of Steel City, too. Have all the beast spirits done something like that?"

"You do not know?" Angler asked, and Takuya shook his head.

"No… we don't know what our spirits've been doing the last twenty years. And we only get bits of gossip from around the place. But you Trailmons seem to know everything, so…"

"Vrytramon and Gamamon are the only two spirits actually _seen_ destroying anything," it explained. "Vrytramon is also to blame for a fire in the Fortune Teller's Market – most of the tents burned down."

Takuya bit his lip, hunching further forward so he was hanging out of the cab as much as sitting in it. "When'd all this happen?"

"The fire in Steel City was eleven years ago, and then the rails and Fortune Teller's Market were both destroyed a year later, when stories about the haato were first told."

"Oh yeah…?" Takuya drummed his fingers against the metal of Angler's back, considering all that. "I didn't think most digimon believed in the haato."

"We Trailmon see much more than most digimon," it said, a touch of pride beating through its fear. "We know more, you know?"

"I know," he agreed, smiling despite himself before looking up at the darkening sky. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the first twinkling star, and he sat back in the cab seat. "Why would the beast spirits be acting like that? It must have something to do with the haato, but…"

"Why do you say that?" Angler asked, and Takuya flinched, unaware that he'd spoken out loud.

"Ah – well, you know… The beast spirits were all held under a pretty tight control by the human spirits, but Vrytramon and Gamamon went nuts just as these haato things showed up, and Agunimon said –" He stopped, blinking as he listened to himself talk. "Agunimon told me… he was trapped… and that was why I was acting weird… why I was losing control… like Vrytramon…"

"What are you saying? I don't understand!"

"I don't know yet," he murmured, and slumped down in the cab. "Agunimon was trapped… which is why I was losing control to the beast in me… The beast was taking over because the human couldn't keep it in check. The beast spirits appeared in this world, out of control… and then the haato… attacked…" He rubbed his mouth with one hand, and then pushed it up over his face and into his hair. It meant something. There was something important there – something huge and glaring and the type of thing that would solve all the problems if he could just work out what it was. "Haato… heart… the English word for heart… Something about our hearts…?"

He looked down at his chest, and then back up at the sky. Agunimon had told him a lot without telling him anything clearly. There was a reason for that, Takuya knew, which had something to do with the bigger problem, and that meant that he had to work out the riddle, which he wasn't very good at. Tomoki was good at puzzles… Kouji was good at strategy.

The thought of his partner made Takuya twitch, and his hand immediately slid down to his still aching cheek. Not only punching him, but then getting himself kidnapped before Takuya could get over it… How the hell was Takuya supposed to fight for Kouji's safety when all he wanted to do was rip the damn canine a new one?

"Selfish bastard," he snarled, sliding even further down in his seat. "What does he care if I want to stay here? It's a lot better than wasting my time out in the real world, where I'm nothing but a stupid kid. Here I'm useful. Here I can do something, make a difference! I can –" He stopped again, the words stirring something in his unconscious. "In the digital world, I can… change things… change… data… From what it was to… something new…"

Agunimon's face flashed in his mind, lips moving fast as it tried to tell him everything he needed to know. Takuya closed his eyes the better to see the memory, whispering along with his human spirit.

"_We became one creature, far more so than any of the others. You can access data just like a real digimon. Humans aren't supposed to be able to do that_," His eyes slid open again, letting that work through his mind. "_Find out how it began. I'm not talking about the Legendary Ten, but the digital world itself. That's key to finding out the truth_. The past… I can… access data… change it… Change…"

Angler's lantern swung back to hang over Takuya's head, and he flinched, suddenly remembering that he was talking to himself. He forced a loud laugh, babbling excuses to satiate the trailmon's curiosity and confusion, but then sat back and curled up on his seat.

Times like this, he really wished he was a thinker.

* * *

><p>Flamon was much more powerful than Kouji remembered even Agunimon being. Bokomon had found them some swords, and Takuya was using his to full advantage: he had somehow covered it in flame, and was using it like a master duellist as he flipped through the air and blasted Hiisutori with fire again and again. His Broken Roar attack was incredible; like a wall of flame. It just exploded from Flamon's hands to wipe out anything directly in front of him. Hiisutori's barrier crumbled in a second, quickly followed by the haato itself.<p>

As for himself, Kouji was using two swords a thousand times more effectively than Wolfmon had ever managed, and he knew it. Without Wolfmon's bulky chest plate and with the knowledge of his own body, he could flip and jump, darting around Rejekushon to deliver hundreds of minor blows that added up all too quickly. One single blast of his Licht Kugel and the haato shattered into data, and he straightened up with a flick of his hair, looking across the battlefield to where Takuya was climbing back to his feet.

"Neat work, Canine," he teased, and Kouji scowled.

"Well, someone had to make up for your rough cutting," he retorted, and they glared at each other for a second before Takuya suddenly laughed, and Kouji grinned in response, walking over to join him in the middle of the field. Takuya held up his forearm, and Kouji bumped it with his own, their fists meeting and staying in touch for just a second longer than the rest of their arms.

Kouji continued smiling at his partner, but Takuya took a deep breath, stretching his arms over his head as he turned away. "Ahhh, it feels good to be doing this again! Fighting the good fight, triumphing over evil, being the hero…" He let his head fall back and looked up at the sky. "We're good at this, Kouji."

"Yeah," he murmured, then slipped his swords back into the sheaths strapped to his back and buried his hand in the wild mane of Takuya's hair. "We're good partners."

"Don't go getting all mushy on me!" he complained, but didn't move away from the touch. He continued gazing up at the sky, his smile fading. "It's best when it's just us. It's hard to keep an eye on the others… But when it's just you and me, I know we'll be okay."

Kouji hesitated, then nodded and let his hand drop, shoving it in his pocket instead. He turned and started walking away, assuming Takuya would follow. "But that's all gotta change. We've gotta go back home sometime."

"Yeah…"

"There are people back home that would miss us," he said quietly. "There are things we still have to do."

Takuya didn't answer this time, and Kouji paused, glancing back over his shoulder. Takuya was still standing in the exact same position, his hands limp by his side and head thrown back as he stared up at the sky. Kouji frowned, turning back to face him. "Takuya, we've talked about this already. You know we have to go back."

"But then… who's going to look after this place?" he asked, only lowering his head when Kouji walked back in front of him. "Who's going to look after all the digimon? The spirits obviously can't control themselves without us, and the digimon need someone to help them. The haato took things over too quickly, too easily. Someone has to be here to protect them, or –"

Kouji cut the rant off by grabbing Takuya's shoulders, pulling him a step closer. Takuya stared at him with a kind of quiet desperation, and he frowned, unsure of what to do next. Part of him just wanted to shake Takuya roughly, as if that would bring out his smile, but another, quieter but somehow stronger part, wanted to pull him close and admit he wasn't sure what to do either.

In the end, he did neither, and just shook his head, giving him a blunt look. "There are people in the human world that need you too, moron."

Takuya smirked. "Oh yeah? Like who?"

"Me," he said, then blinked at his own admission. He hadn't meant to say it. True though it was, it was one of those things that he had never thought he would ever, in a million years, say aloud. Maybe, just maybe, if they were about to die or something, he _might_ tell Kouichi that he loved him, but this was different. And, judging by the shocked look on Takuya's face, he knew it too.

Kouji hesitated, then sighed. No sense lying about it now. "I'm going back to the human world, Takuya. I love it here, but there's just too much for me at home. The thing is, no matter where we are, you're still gonna be my partner. I'm always gonna want – no, _need_ you there."

Takuya just continued staring up at him for a second, then looked away. "Kouji, it's –"

"Takuya," he said firmly, even as he inwardly wondered what on earth was happening. It was strange, like he was completely disconnected from his body. His hands slid up Takuya's shoulders, over the bands and up to his jaw, and he watched them, amazed at how easy the movement had been. Part of him wanted to grit his teeth and pull back, but his body didn't seem interested in that idea, so all he could do was keep staring down into those huge green eyes. "I don't just need you as a battle partner, Takuya."

"Kouji…?" Takuya frowned, his eyes flicking between Kouji's own in confusion. "Kouji, what are you…?"

"You're more than that to me, Takuya, and I need you to know that," he murmured, even as he wondered what the heck he was saying. "I need you to come back, because you… you're my most important person."

"K- Kouji, I… you…" Takuya stammered, staring up at him blankly, and Kouji tried again to pull back, suddenly scared of what he was doing. This was – this was turning out very different than the conversation he'd thought they were having. He didn't like what he was doing right now, it was too sudden. It – there were _implications_ in what he was doing right now! Takuya tried to shake his head, caught in Kouji's hands, his eyes wide. "I don't – it's not…"

"Takuya, I l-"

"No!" Takuya yelped, and Kouji inwardly thanked the high heavens, even as his body clenched, tightening his grip on Takuya and taking a step closer.

"You listen to me now, Takuya. We –"

Luckily, it was at that point that the ground exploded beside them.

* * *

><p>[<em>Continue…?<em>]


	19. A Sense of Worth

_**Rebooted – Chapter Eighteen**_

A Sense of Worth

**TRUFAX:** When a digimon is defeated (in Frontier), it blacks out and its digicode circles around it. The winner either absorbs or purifies the data, allowing their digiegg to fly off. When a Legendary Warrior is defeated, they black out and the dataring appears, but with any spirit they currently hold hovering in front of them. A chosen child is defeated, they're knocked unconscious and the ring appears. However, if a chosen child (like Kouichi) physically existed in the real world, with only their mind in the digital world, the dataring couldn't appear.

* * *

><p>"Takuya!"<p>

"Don't worry about me; move!" he shouted back, and tackled Kouji out of the way, both of them tumbling in a heap until they finally came to a stop, Takuya crouched over Kouji's torso and cringing in pain.

The haato, if that was what it was, had been blasting them with some strange kind of air pressure ever since it appeared. The blasts felt like waves of freezing air to Kouji, but when they hit, it was like shards of ice were ripping into him, tearing his clothes and covering him with scratches. It seemed different for Takuya, who exploded in steam every time the air blasts managed to catch him. His bushy hair and the fur on his tail were also both hanging limp, dripping as if he'd been splashed with a bucket. He clenched his eyes shut, bowing his head so that the water from his horns dripped onto Kouji's chest, and then slowly pushed himself back to his feet, only swaying once before fixing the haato with a heated glare. Kouji got back to his own feet, pulling his swords from their sheaths as he crouched down into a defensive stance.

The haato straightened up again, pulling his shoulders back into a relaxed pose. Even without the amount of damage he was doing to them, the fact he was the spitting image of Yuugi Mutou, only sadder and more tired, was somehow horrifying. He closed his eyes and raised one slack hand to point at them. "Just die," he said softly, before his hand tensed and another blast of pressure rocketed toward them.

"Who're you telling to die?" Takuya shouted, and he dodged the blast by leaping up into the air, charged with flame. "You better prepare yourself!"

"Please stop," the haato said, and he lifted his arm to redirect the blast for a straight hit on Takuya's chest. Steam erupted out in a huge cloud, and Takuya's scream was the only warning Kouji got before his friend was thrown away again, data streams covering his body before he hit the ground, almost a dozen metres back and completely human.

"Takuya!" Kouji shouted, pausing for a split second to make sure Takuya was still breathing before charging for the haato. "Why you…!"

"You can't win," he said quietly, shooting another blast, and Kouji only had time to flinch and bring his swords up to guard before he was hit.

He was pushed back several feet, but his swords had taken the brunt of the blast, and so he remained standing, twirling his swords to loosen his wrists again. "You…"

"My name is Puraido," the haato said gently, shifting so he could switch attacking hands. "And I can sense your confidence – you think you can beat me, but you really can't. It's best if you just give up now. Surrender your spirits and cores peacefully. Let me ask the same of your friends. This fight… it won't get you anywhere."

"Don't joke with me!" he yelled. "I won't let you near my friends!"

"But you already have," he said, before twitching his aim a little to the right and sending another wave.

Kouji tensed, but the blast shot past him and he flinched, suddenly realising where it was going. He shouted for Takuya to run, but too late – the blast hit, and Takuya screamed, steam exploding out from his body as he was pummelled further into the ground. Kouji grit his teeth, but knew better than to wait. He spun around, swinging one sword up onto his forearm. "Take this! _Licht Kugel_!"

"_Shadow Wave_!" Puraido yelled back, throwing up his other arm. Kouji's laser shot forward at the same time as the haato's invisible attack, and they met halfway, where they exploded with a blast of black lightning. Kouji started sprinting, spinning his swords around to a ready position, and ducked under the still sparking explosion before leaping up into the sky.

"_Licht Zeibar_!" he shouted as his swords glowed bright, aimed directly for Puraido's skull.

The haato turned in place and threw up both hands, tensed and ready. "_Shadow Wave_!" he cried again, and Kouji grunted as his attack immediately hit a barrier, keeping him off the ground and away from his target. They struggled for a moment, glaring at each other through the light of Kouji's blades, before Puraido yelled out something incoherent and threw him off, sending him tumbling back toward Takuya before tossing out another wave. It hit hard, and Kouji was shoved back down and across the dirt, howling as the rocks tore through his clothes and into his skin.

"That's why I told you," Puraido said as Kouji finally slid to a stop. "You can't defeat me."

Kouji groaned, managing to push himself up just enough to roll onto his front, where he could struggle onto his elbows and look over to where Takuya was lying still. He gasped down a breath and tried to reach out, biting the inside of his lip as he saw his own hand shaking miserably. "Ta… kuya… Come on… wake up…"

His voice, weak though it was, managed to do something, because Takuya's fingers twitched in response. The material of his gloves was torn, separated from his palm, so it took Kouji a moment to realise Takuya's fingers were curling into the dirt as he tried to push himself up.

"Just… who the hell do you… think we are?" Takuya whispered, and he managed to get one leg beneath him so he could clamber onto his knees. He stayed on all fours for a few minutes, panting, but his triumph inspired Kouji to make the attempt and rise as well. Together, they slowly stood back up, swaying with the effort, but Takuya's head remained bowed as he spoke, water dripping from his soaking hair and down his shoulders. "You think we're going to give up? Give you our spirits? Our cores? Then let you go after our friends?"

Puraido huffed out a breath and threw out another blast, but Kouji was ready this time. He spun in place, swinging his left-hand sword up and around before letting it go flying into the path of the wave. It hit, and crashed against the sword with a literal cascade of water that splashed into the ground in broad puddles.

"You…" Takuya finally lifted his head and fixed Puraido with a hard, cold glare. "You're the joke! We'll never give in to the likes of you!"

"You won't win against me!" Puraido yelled, and he brought both hands together, facing them palm-out at Takuya. "Please stop fighting!"

"Never!" Kouji shouted, and he leapt up, gripping his sword with both hands and charging it with light. "You're the one who should give up!"

Puraido noticed him too late, and threw out his hands to defend, but Kouji didn't have time to react. The wave crashed into his chest, but rather than the freezing cold, he felt water slamming against him, and he managed to flip out of the way rather than be thrown into the ground again. He coughed when he landed, but didn't have time to do more than shake his hair free of water before another wave rocketed his way. He gasped, flinching back, but a black and red blur shot out in front of him to take the blast.

The Shadow Wave ruffled Takuya's hair, and he stumbled back a few steps as it ripped through his shirt, but he himself remained unharmed, and Kouji snapped his fingers, suddenly catching on.

"The waves are different for both of us!" he said, stepping forward when Takuya glanced back at him. "He throws water at you, because you're a fire-type digimon, while I get some kind of dark power. Fire-types are weak against water, so it doesn't affect me the way it weakens you!"

"And the darkness that hurts you is just annoying to me," he added, and they turned back to look at Puraido. "If we take each other's hits, we can keep standing!"

"That's what I'm thinking," he agreed, stepping up beside him with his sword at the ready. "We're gonna have to work together on this one."

"Yeah… just as well that's how we fight best, huh?" he said, grinning as he pulled his own sword from its sheath.

Kouji smirked back, and then started sprinting forward, raising his swords to the ready. "I told you to prepare yourself!" he yelled, and Puraido sighed out a quick breath, dropping into a defensive crouch with both hands out in front of him.

"Why won't you learn?" he demanded, and his hands tensed as he threw another attack. "_Shadow Wave_!"

"You've got the wrong opponent, pal!" Takuya yelled as he flipped over Kouji's head and immediately caught the blast with his blade. He grunted as the pressure forced him back a step, larger rips tearing his shirt and jacket apart, but didn't move, making a show of struggling against the power. "You… won't…!"

"I will defeat you," Puraido said, just before Kouji slid out from behind Takuya again, his sword drawn back and glowing at full power.

"No, you won't," he said calmly, and then swung around, yelling as the blade cut through the haato's chest. "_Licht Zeibar_!"

Puraido exploded in a stream of data, and Kouji pulled out his digivice to collect it, letting out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. It quickly disappeared, and he nodded, spinning the device in his hand before sliding it back into his pocket.

And with the last of the haato defeated, Kouji smiled, taking his first easy breath in days.

Things could be better now.

* * *

><p>When they had first visited the digital world, the Guardian Stones had looked like great, towering stone heads. One-eyed and menacing, they had stood alone in a field of long grass and island boulders, the only marker of the gotsumon's underground home.<p>

In this rebuilt digital world, the heads were gone, replaced by an impossibly huge granite temple, with large Roman arches and what had probably once been beautiful fresco carvings on the walls.

Now, they were nothing more than gouged-out scratches, vaguely outlining what may have once been a man and his dog.

"Where the heck did this come from…?" Junpei breathed, staring up at the damaged carvings. "Did the gotsumon do this?"

"Dunno," murmured Izumi, and she looked around at Takuya for his answer, only to realise he wasn't even paying attention. He was staring around at the long grass, his hands flexing at his sides.

"Hey, look at this!" called Tomoki. "This rubble over here! I think they used to be statues!"

Izumi hesitated, watching Takuya for another second before joining Kouichi and Junpei in hurrying up beside Tomoki, who standing over two large piles of white marble near the temple entrance. They were placed on either side of the archway, and Tomoki carefully hefted one particularly large piece up to show them. "See? Remind you of anything?"

Kouichi took it from him, turning it over in his hands until he was holding it upright. It looked like a dog's head; but more angular, carved as if made from metal and showing spiked teeth. "Gamamon!"

"And this one!" Izumi lifted a rock from the other pile, holding it out so they could see the symbol carved into it. "The symbol of light! I think this is supposed to be Wolfmon's shoulder plate!"

"These were statues of Kouji's spirits," Junpei murmured, lifting his head to look around at the temple again. "Do you think this was a temple for him, or something?"

"Whatever it was, it's not anymore," Takuya said grimly, and they all looked back at him as he turned in a slow circle, still staring out across the field.

"Takuya?" asked Tomoki. "What are you doing?"

"Either the gotsumon destroyed it, or it's been taken over by the haato. Either way, it's no temple," he said, and took a half-step back toward them. "And we're not safe here."

They all flinched, and Junpei and Kouichi hurried back down to join Takuya, Junpei's fists beginning to spark with lightning as the three boys looked around. "Are we being watched?"

"Yeah, I think so," Takuya murmured, though his eyes didn't stop moving. "Don't know who by, though…"

"You think they'll attack?" asked Kouichi, but Takuya just bowed his head without answering. Kouichi grit his teeth, pulling his hand back to strike. "In that case, we should make the first move!"

"Kouichi, no!" Izumi shouted, but too late. He had already swung his arm forward, and his Dark Dart shot off into the grass, quickly followed by a loud curse.

"_Angry Rock_!" shouted another voice, and the boys all swore and jumped out of the way as the place they had been standing was bombarded with several small boulders.

"You son of a…!" Junpei lifted his arm, barely noticing the lightning that fell from the sky to dance around his raised fist. "_Mijonir Thunder_!"

He punched through the grass the voice had come from, his fist connecting with something hard that broke under the force. It disappeared almost as quick as his punch had come, and several gotsumon leapt up out of the grass, all surrounded by the small boulders of their attack and ready to fight.

"I knew it!" one of them yelled. "Humans! If we delete them and absorb their data…!"

"We'll be strong enough to beat anyone that comes into our valley!" another finished.

"As if we'd let you!" snapped Junpei. "We're on a rescue mission! We're not gonna let you stop us!"

"That's right!" Tomoki cried, yanking out his digivice and holding out his hand for the data stream. "And I'll show you how!"

"Wait, Tomoki!" Takuya shouted, but too late. Tomoki slammed his digivice against the data, and was immediately covered in code as he transformed into Chakmon.

"Legendary Warriors!" another Gotsumon gasped.

"Oh, man…!" sighed Takuya.

"You… you're just like that Gamamon!" the first one yelled, pointing at them furiously. "You've come to destroy our home!"

"Never!" cried Izumi. "We would never do something like that!"

"That's what we thought of Gamamon! We trusted him! We thought he protected us as our ally in battle against the Royal Knights!" it shouted. "But then – but then, ten years ago, he attacked our home and destroyed our Trailmon Tracks!"

"No! That wasn't Gamamon!" Kouichi yelled, dark light sweeping over his hands as he gestured. "My little brother's spirit would never do something like that!"

"Lies! More lies to try and get us on your side!" Gotsumon cried, and they all jumped up, summoning their boulders. "We won't fall for it again! _Angry Rock_!"

All six Gotsumon leapt towards them, and Junpei and Kouichi both shoved Takuya behind them, preparing their separate powers. But before they could attack, Takuya grabbed their collars and yanked them away, just as the Angry Rock boulders crashed into the place they'd been.

"They're hand-to-hand fighters, you idiots!" he shouted, dragging them back again to avoid more stones. "They're too fast for power attacks!"

"What?"

"But I –"

"_Tsurararara_!" Tomoki yelled, as he shot over their heads in icicle form to slam into the lead Gotsumon's front. Both digimon went sprawling, but Tomoki recovered first, pulling his blaster out from behind his back and beginning to fire. The gotsumon turned to face him, and Takuya turned to Izumi.

"Quick kicks and fast turns are your specialty, Izumi!" he called, and she hesitated, then nodded and threw Kouichi's coat off her shoulders, a strong breeze ruffling the boys' clothing as she ran past them. Takuya glanced back at the fight, then pulled Junpei and Kouichi further back toward the temple before letting them go.

"What the hell are you doing, Takuya?" Kouichi demanded, spinning around to face him. "Izumi and Tomoki –"

"Tomoki's a digimon, and Izumi's best attacks are physical," he explained, grabbing up some of the larger pieces of the broken statues. "Fighting is fine, but just remember to keep it fast and dirty, because the Gotsumon won't wait around for you to power up for an attack. Much as I hate to say it, Kouichi, you and me are on backup. I'm counting on you, Junpei."

"Leave it to me," he said, grinning as he snapped off a two-fingered salute and ran into the fight.

Kouichi clenched his teeth, frustrated, only to flinch as Takuya suddenly loaded an armful of rubble into his hands. He blinked and looked up, and Takuya grinned, hefting the stone Gamamon's head. "About time Kouji's thick skull came in handy."

* * *

><p>Despite the situation, Izumi couldn't help but feel good as her foot crashed against the side of Gotsumon's head and stayed strong, cracking against the stone and forcing the digimon off balance. She followed it up by slamming that same foot into the ground and swinging upright, wind swirling around her arms as she shoved them both out with the movement. "<em>Brezza Petalo<em>!"

Gotsumon yelled as it was thrown back, crashing into the dirt with a sound like an earthquake, but Izumi didn't watch, instead turning to face a fresh fighter, one that was charging at her with flying rocks. She almost laughed as the wind ruffled her hair and drove her forward to meet him.

She'd forgotten how good it felt to fight with the power of the wind. The grace and power and all-out strength that filled her… all that was missing was her wings, but she felt good enough to fly as it was.

"_Snow Bomber_!" was the warning, and she leapt out of the way as dozens of icy snowballs crashed past her to pummel another Gotsumon. She glanced over her shoulder, and Tomoki grinned at her as he slid past on his skis. A second later, Junpei tumbled past them both, lightning sparking over his body as he grappled an opponent, but neither moved to help him. They had their own fights, and knew he could handle his own. He finally managed to get his feet up under Gotsumon and kick him off, then scrambled upright and ran for clear ground, charging lightning around his fists. Izumi barely noticed, too busy with her own battle, but she did see the two other gotsumon crawling along the ground toward him, ready to attack.

"Jun-!" she began, then squealed as she had to defend against an all-out Angry Rock attack, large stones flying at her from all directions. "Hey, no fair!"

"Oi! Boulders-for-Brains!" Takuya's voice broke across the field like a whip, before a stone Wolfmon's foot slammed into the ground in front of the creeping Gotsumon. "Ain't you ever heard of a clean fight?"

"That's our line!" they shouted, jumping to their feet, and Kouichi barked out a laugh.

"Sneaking around, trying to attack someone from behind while they're fighting someone else? Where's the honour in that?"

"Shut up! You're just a pair of stupid humans!" one of them shouted, and they both started running, boulders appearing out of the air around them. "_Angry Rock_!"

Takuya yelled and shoved Kouichi out of the way, but he was too slow to move himself. He ducked the first two stones, but was knocked back by the next, and then pummelled into the larger pile of rubble.

"No!" Kouichi scrambled to help, but had barely gotten back to his feet before one of the gotsumon slammed into his back, hitting the crook of his neck and making his knees buckle. He crumbled to the ground, falling unconscious to the sound of Takuya yelling his name.

"Worry about yourself, first!" Gotsumon shouted, another wave of boulders appearing around it. "_Angry Rock_!"

Takuya yelled as the rocks slammed into him, and curled up the better to protect himself, but it was no use: he could feel his bones protesting the treatment and knew he could only last so long. "Guys!"

"Hold on, Takuya, I'm coming!" shouted Junpei, but he had only gone a step before he was forced to jump back out of the way of his own attacker, and spun to face it with lightning crackling. "Why you – _Thor Hammer_!"

The attack blasted Gotsumon back into another, both of them covered in wild lightning, but another had already taken their place, and Junpei yelled as he suddenly found himself dodging a flurry of punches. "Ah… Takuya, I can't –!"

"I can't get to him!" Tomoki called, and Izumi slid out of her Tornado Gamba just long enough to look around and realise she was cut off from the group as well.

"No! Aw…! Why the hell didn't I get the power to _fly_?" she wailed.

"Dammit…" Takuya hissed as one of the rocks finally tore through the material of his jacket, and then clenched his fists. He didn't have much of a choice. "This is gonna hurt…" he muttered, and then let out a yell as he threw out both arms, knocking back a few rocks by pure luck before lunging up and out of the rubble. He didn't even bother trying to run away, rather sprinting toward his attacker gotsumon instead, ignoring the rocks still being thrown at him in order to tackle the digimon right off its feet. They both went tumbling across the dirt, but as soon as Takuya was aware of being on top, he slammed the gotsumon's head into the ground, using it as an anchor to stop their movement, then used the continuing momentum to rock up onto his hands, shove Gotsumon's head further into the dirt and then flip off.

He landed in front of another, which immediately threw its fist into his gut and made him fold, dropping to his knees with a croak before he was thrown sideways by a roundhouse kick to the head. He hit hard, groaning as he watched the stars explode in his vision, and dropped into the ground, taking a second's rest before he tried to get up again. He vaguely felt something jerk around his middle, but he didn't care – the pain was everywhere…

"Takuya!" Izumi screamed, and he struggled to open his eyes and answer, but it was too hard to move.

"Data!" Gotsumon yelled. "It's mine!"

"No, it isn't!" shouted Tomoki, and the sound of his snowball-bullets pounding into something went off close to Takuya's ear. He groaned, trying to open his eyes again, but all he managed to see was a gotsumon hitting the ground in front of him, covered in ice. Then a large hand suddenly grabbed his collar and he was yanked over onto his back. Junpei stared down at him, his eyes wide and scared.

"Takuya! Come on, pull yourself together!"

"What?" he mumbled, and blinked hard to get his vision to clear. "I'm fine."

"You've got data that says otherwise," he snapped, and Takuya painfully lifted his head to check. Sure enough, his data ring had emerged from his body and was spinning around his waist, though it was also sparking with red lightning like he'd never seen before.

"What the…?"

"You're more human than the rest of us, right now! You gotta take it easy!" cried Junpei, before he suddenly dumped Takuya, lightning exploding around them both as he punched a gotsumon that had appeared over them. Takuya clenched his eyes and fists, willing his data back inside himself as Junpei leapt over him to keep fighting.

"But I'm not…" Takuya breathed, and he rolled over to check the battlefield. Two gotsumon were blacked-out, lying prone on the field as their data swirled around them, and Tomoki was bombarding two more with a constant barrage of ice. Izumi had another trapped in a whirlwind, while Junpei was going hand-to-hand with the last gotsumon. Kouichi was unconscious on his back, but no data ring had appeared around him. Takuya narrowed his eyes, but then yelped and ducked with both arms covering his head as Junpei and his opponent stumbled over him.

"Hey, watch it!" he yelled, and then grunted and sank back into the dirt when the sound and movement made his aching head spin. He lay there for another moment, focussing on his breathing and keeping his data contained, and then started the slow crawl over to Kouichi. His friend was pretty badly beaten, covered in rapidly swelling red marks that would become bruises, and sporting a long, gouged out piece of skin in his neck. Takuya bit his lip when he reached him, and absently put out his hand to touch the wound. As soon as his fingers got close, black light crackled over them, and he snatched his hand back, blinking wearily.

"Crap," he mumbled, then shifted his hand to shake Kouichi's shoulder. "Hey. Hey, wake up!"

"Hmm…?" Kouichi didn't move for a moment, his eyelids fluttering for a few seconds before they managed to open. "Ta… kuya…?"

"We have to move. We're in the way," he said, and shoved at Kouichi's shoulder again. "Can you stand?"

"Mm… maybe," he mumbled, and then groaned as Takuya yanked him up to his knees, slinging Kouichi's arm around his shoulder and dragging him to his feet. "Apparently I can…"

"Are you two okay?" Izumi called over her shoulder.

"Yeah, we're all good!" said Takuya, hefting Kouichi a little higher.

Light flared as Junpei's fist finally connected with his opponent's chest, lightning arcing around him as his punch sent Gotsumon flying into the grass. He waited a second, but the digimon didn't reappear, and so he turned to face Takuya. "Get him into the temple – we'll finish up here!"

"Thanks!" he called, and didn't look back as he started dragging Kouichi toward the steps, keeping him supported with one hand as they went. Once they disappeared into the temple, Junpei huffed out a quick breath and turned back to the fight, smiling despite himself. Takuya had gone, Kouichi was clearly not up to fighting anyone, and they were trying to _save_ Kouji. None of them could burst into the fight and take over.

A gotsumon suddenly sprang up out of the ground in front of him, and Junpei stumbled back, slamming his hands together and calling for thunder to shield himself before swinging around and thrusting both fists toward the digimon's head. Gotsumon ducked and sprang upward to head butt, but Junpei was too tall, and so the rocks caught him in the chest instead, throwing him back several metres and knocking the wind out of him.

"Junpei!" cried Izumi, and the gotsumon span in place, only to see Izumi lashing out with one cyclone-charged heel which smashed into its left eye. It yelled out, but she had no time for mercy. She followed the kick through and landed on her hands, flipping around to slam both heels down on its shoulders, the force driving it into the ground like a nail.

"Hey!" it shouted, red flooding its cheeks. "That's not fair!"

"No, that was a fight – anything's pretty much fair game," she corrected, waving one finger at him.

"You know I'm a rock-type digimon," it pointed out. "I can just work my way out and I'll come back stronger for being stuck in here. I'll delete all three of you, and then go after your human friends for their data!"

Izumi glared at him, then glanced over her shoulder to where Tomoki had just blacked out his own opponent, the gotsumon lying still and broken within its data ring. She turned back to Gotsumon and shook her head. "You really shouldn't have told us that."

"Yeah? Why's that, you disgusting excuse for a Legendary Warrior?"

"Because we were gonna let you guys live," Junpei croaked, staggering back to his feet with one arm wrapped around his waist. "You've lost. Accept it."

"Never! I'll keep coming after you, again and again, until you leave this world!" Gotsumon snarled, twisting his head around to glare at each of them in turn. "Whether it's because I take your data or you just go home, I don't care!"

"So even though we haven't purified or absorbed any of the data from your friends," Tomoki gestured around at that blacked-out digimon surrounding them, "you still think we're bad guys?"

"I don't care if you're bad guys or not – Gamamon ruined our lives!"

"He did not!" cried Izumi. "You just haven't listened to our side of the story!"

"I don't need to! I just want you gone!" it shouted, and then yanked its arms up out of the earth and pointed them straight at Izumi. "Die, human! _Angry Ro_-"

"_Thor Hammer_!" Junpei shouted, slamming his lightning-covered fists down over Gotsumon's head. Even with his stone-armour, combined with all the other attacks from their fight, the hit won out, and Gotsumon fell forward, blacking out as its data ring appeared around it.

"You're a bully," Tomoki murmured, retracting his digivice from the air in front of him. "I won't forgive any bullying. This digivice's ice and snow will purify your spirit."

"I hope you're a nicer digimon the next time around," Izumi said sadly, and Junpei looked away as Tomoki held out his digivice.

"_Digicode scan_!"

The light quickly faded, and Izumi closed her eyes, slowly sinking to the ground. Junpei stumbled over to sit down beside her, while Tomoki stared down at the screen of his digivice, trying not to think about all the datacode around them, waiting to be purified.

"I like feeling useful," Junpei admitted quietly. "I like fighting, because it makes me think we were just as important as Kouji and Takuya."

"Mm… but I hate destroying digimon," Izumi murmured. "Especially like this… It was just fighting for what it believed in."

"It wanted revenge. That's not a good reason to fight," Tomoki said, and then looked up and around. "Kouji-san always says there's no honour in vengeance. It only makes the world a darker place."

Junpei snorted despite himself, but when the others looked around at him, he shook his head and elbowed Izumi. "We should get moving, try to catch up to Takuya and Kouichi. Otherwise the rest of the gotsumon will recover and we'll have to fight again."

"Yeah… okay," she said, and pushed herself to her feet, then turned and held out a hand to help him up. "Thanks for saving me, by the way."

He blushed, then smiled and took her hand. "I'll always be there to save you, Izumi-chan!"

Tomoki groaned at the sap, but Izumi only smiled back, and they started into the temple.

* * *

><p>"Hey… Are you really mad at Kouji?"<p>

Takuya grimaced, glancing at Kouichi sideways. He was slowly regaining his strength, so Takuya was no longer dragging him, but he still couldn't walk on his own. Unfortunately, unlike his brother, who tended to be sullen and silent when he was hurt, Kouichi liked to transfer his pain onto other people. There was no escape.

He opened his mouth to answer, then stopped and winced. "In a 'if he wasn't Kouji, I'd just punch him back and everything'd be okay' kinda way."

"Why does who he is make a difference?" he asked, and Takuya shrugged with his head, since his shoulders were otherwise occupied.

"Because violence is a stupid, immature way to resolve problems and he's never let me get away with being immature before, so it's bigger than that," he said, and then turned his head to look at Kouichi face-on. "I'm not stupid, okay? He hit me, and that's a big deal between us. But we've got bigger issues right now. And I got stuff to think about, and I'm not good at thinking, but Kouji is, so I need him here and not pissed off at me so he can think for me. Until that happens, I don't have time to be angry, y'know?"

Kouichi just gazed at him in silence for a second, then nodded and turned forward again. "I still think that makes you an idiot."

"Hey!" He laughed despite himself, dropping his grip on Kouichi's arms in mock threat. "I'm helping you out here!"

"An idiot," he repeated, then glanced at him with a smile, "but a good leader."

Takuya blinked, then smiled back and hefted Kouichi a little higher, taking a bit more of his weight. "I'm a fighter, not a leader. But whatever. Come on, let's keep going."

"Yeah, I –" But before Kouichi could finish, the wall beside them suddenly exploded, and Takuya instinctively threw Kouichi back and away from him, a bare second before being gripped by his jacket and slammed into the wall behind.

"Hello, Firebug!" Arogansu snarled, crushing Takuya tighter against the stone. "Are you prepared to die now?"

He grunted, grabbing one of Arogansu's arms in both hands. "We were in the middle of a conversation, you know," he growled, and tried to bring his legs up to shove the haato off, but Arogansu noticed and kneed him in the lower abdomen to keep him still.

"You knew I was coming after you, and yet you _dared_ to let your guard down?" He let go of Takuya's jacket with one hand in order to hold him by the neck instead, just tight enough to make his already laboured breathing harder. "You deserve this."

Takuya audibly choked, and Kouichi grit his teeth, curling his fingers around something he knew wasn't really there. The shadows of his fingers quickly solidified, smoothing out into a long, thin blade which splintered into three as he threw it. "_Dark Dart_!"

Deadly as they could have been, the darts ripped through the haato's clothes, erupting into fire that destroyed the blades and healed his wounds before Arogansu glanced over his shoulder with a sneer. "If you cannot stand, you have no right to challenge me!"

Kouichi snarled, struggling to sit up. "I won't let you have him."

"You won't _let_ me?" he repeated. "How can you make such a claim? You can't even stand!"

"He might not—" a voice called from back down the hall, and Kouichi twisted around to see Junpei leading Izumi and Chakmon at a full sprint, his entire body sparking with electricity. "—but I sure as hell can! _Mijonir Thunder_!"

The lightning lashed out from his fist in a reaching arc, and Arogansu immediately spun around, holding out Takuya like a shield.

"Junpei, no!" Kouichi yelled, but Tomoki and Izumi were faster, Tomoki hauling out his blaster at the same time as Izumi threw out her arms.

"_Snow Bomber_!"

"_Brezza Petalo_!"

Her whirlwind swept up the snowballs, thrusting them out to intercept the lightning and redirect it into the shattered wall. The attack exploded in a burst of weather, wind and ice blasting back out, but aside from making them all a little colder and wetter, it disappeared rather harmlessly. Junpei sighed in relief, but the other two drew themselves up and ready, watching as Arogansu turned to face them properly, still holding Takuya with one arm while the other rose defensively.

For almost a minute, nobody moved.

"Well?" Arogansu prompted. "You have the advantage. Five against one. The odds say you will win."

"We don't play odds," Kouichi said darkly, and he wiped his knuckles against his lip before struggling to his knees. "Especially not when one of us is your shield."

"Don't be stupid!" snapped Takuya. "Go find Kouji! I can take care of this – nngn!"

Arogansu sighed harshly as he pulled his arm tighter against Takuya's neck, cutting off his air again. "Talk like that will get you deleted."

Junpei hesitated, exchanging glances with Izumi before taking a slow step forward. "We don't play the odds… and I don't think you do either, do you?"

Arogansu raised his eyebrows, tilting his head slightly in interest. "Now why do you say that?"

"Because you have Takuya as a shield. You know we won't attack. It's not a fair fight, but you're still willing to do it to win." He flexed his hands warily. "You don't go against odds that aren't in your favour."

"Of course not, I am not so arrogant as to believe I could beat them, unlike some foolish creatures," he added, and Takuya gasped as the arm around his neck suddenly tightened. The others flinched, instinctively moving closer, but Junpei just licked his lips, glancing over at Izumi again. She hesitated, then nodded, and he flexed his hands again.

"So… so why are you going after him?" he asked. "Why… why are you attacking Takuya?"

Arogansu looked at him again, confused, and Junpei swallowed.

"When you and Labu ambushed us, I was the only one who still didn't have any powers. I was weak, completely defenceless… I couldn't have fought off a gomamon. Takuya, however… he beat that Torasuto all on his own, he's way stronger than I am just as a human, and sometimes he turns into a pretty powerful little digimon. Between the two of us, you had way better chances of beating me," he pointed out. "Why didn't you attack me?"

"Because you acknowledge those facts," Arogansu replied blankly. "I have no quarrel with you. You claim no power or strength you do not have. You prepare and plan, there are those that are stronger than you, and you know it. You accept it."

"J- Jun…!" Takuya gasped, his hands slapping against the arm now tight against his throat. "Not… help…ing!"

"But this thing," snapped Arogansu. "This thing does not prepare, does not plan. He counts on others to do all that for him! And even if they will not, he just rushes into every situation, knowing—just knowing—that somehow, everything will be alright! Somehow he will win the day!"

Takuya's mouth worked silently, his fist slamming into Arogansu's elbow as if that would somehow loosen the grip.

"He has always done this! Since the first time you entered this world! He knows he's weak and helpless and cannot win, and yet he thrusts himself into every fight, taking the grandeur and credit from those more deserving, all because he thinks his pathetic, useless presence is _somehow beneficial_!" he roared, and then spun, bodily throwing Takuya into the wall. He hit hard, slamming his head against the stonework, and everyone flinched as his data sprang back up around him. Arogansu finally released him, and he crumpled to the floor, only his constantly spinning data ring moving at all.

For a second, no one moved, just staring at their fallen leader, before Junpei slowly blinked and looked back up. "So what?"

"So what?" repeated Arogansu. "What do you mean, 'so what'?"

"What's it matter to you?" he asked, forcing himself not to shake, or look at Takuya, or think about what he was doing. "It's annoying, but it doesn't hurt anyone."

"Doesn't…" Arogansu laughed breathlessly, shaking his head helplessly. "You don't understand… how could you? You haven't been here. You weren't a part of this… You don't see. You don't know how your actions moulded the digital world."

Tomoki tilted his head, something about that hitting a point in the back of his mind, but no one else acknowledged it. Junpei made sure Arogansu kept his gaze, allowing Izumi to sneak around behind him and help Kouichi to his feet.

"Because of this arrogant fool, everything in this world has become… worthless. Pointless. Redundant. Every digimon will risk everything they have, everything they are, because he did that. He did that on the assumption that everything would work out, and it did, and now everyone thinks like that!" Arogansu yelled, his foot lashing out to strike Takuya's shoulder. "If things don't work out, try something different! If that doesn't work, something else will! Because of him, all that anyone thinks they need is self-confidence. If you don't have that, then, will, you might as well not exist!"

Junpei let his eyes close for a second, recognising thoughts he'd had himself. "Yeah… yeah, I get that."

"He did that. He caused my world to think that way!" said Arogansu. "And it… I am the only one who seems to see that. And so… so I am the only one who can punish him for it. Torasuto wanted to break him, Hiisutori holds him up a prized possession, Puraido wants to own him, but I know he needs to suffer for what he has done." He paused, drawing himself up with his chest out. "And because of that, I will succeed where they fail. Because I am the only one with righteousness on my side. I will break him apart and take his core and right all the wrongs his arrogance has caused."

Junpei kept his eyes closed, licking his lips to spare time while he considered, but even when he opened his eyes, he kept them lowered. From the corner of his eye, he could see Izumi and Kouichi had reached Takuya and were slowly manoeuvring him up onto Izumi's back. His data ring was still clear and spinning brightly, so he took a deep breath and looked up at Arogansu again.

"You have a point, and I'll give you that," he said softly. "Takuya is arrogant. And stupid. And he doesn't have any sense of worth, whether that's in himself or other people, because he does just think things will turn out alright. And it's really frikking annoying that it always does, for him. Because it never does for me."

Arogansu bowed his head in gracious acceptance, but his smile faded when Junpei slammed his fists together, electricity arcing out and up, over his arms and around his back.

"But he's been rubbing that in my face since I was twelve!" he snapped. "If anyone is going to punish him for all that, it's me! I challenge your right to justice! That justice is mine to deliver!"

"_You_ are claiming you hold more right than me?" he demanded, and Junpei nodded firmly.

"He ruined my sense of self-worth long before he did it to you."

* * *

><p>Mokuba wasn't entirely sure where to direct his horrified stare.<p>

For one thing, he had just dropped his extremely delicious and caffeine-packed drink all over his e-reader, which was now sparking and beginning to smoke in objection to the bath.

Alternatively, he could join Anzu in staring at the cause of the shock that caused him to spill his drink in the first place.

The last Virtual Reality Pod – the one that, for the past four days, had held host to a solid, digital monster that occasionally turned into a human teenager – was empty.

It was still functioning perfectly; reporting back a strong, steady stream of data and life signs.

But completely empty.

Anzu slowly looked up from the pod and then around at Mokuba, who looked up from the remains of his e-reader to focus on the pod again.

"That isn't normal VR behaviour, right?" she asked, and he silently shook his head.

"I think…" He twitched as his mind switched gears out of science mode. "This is magic, and therefore anything that goes wrong with it is not my fault."

"A kid that you're responsible for just disappeared into thin air!" Anzu cried, waving at the pod. "How can you just brush it off like that?"

"My brother's Seto Kaiba," he said calmly, and Anzu gaped at him for several long seconds before letting out a quick, breathless laugh.

"One day, that's really not going to be good enough. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, but until then… Maybe we should track down Yuugi, what d'you think?"

* * *

><p><em>[Continue...?]<em>


	20. Hope's Devastation

_**Rebooted – Chapter Nineteen**_

Hope's Devastation

**TRUFAX:** It was actually noticing the similarities between Junpei and Honda's positions in their teams that made me first think of this? Honda is usually seen as the tag-along, but he does little things in the background, that so often get overlooked. Junpei is actually the strongest (physically) of the Legendary Warriors, but by the end of the series, all the focus is on Takuya and the twins, so even Kouichi would have no idea what Junpei was capable of…

* * *

><p>It was one of those moments, Seto could tell, that caught Yuugi between what he wanted to say and do, what he knew was expected of him, and the fact that he had absolutely no idea what was going on.<p>

He'd eventually found Yuugi in Mokuba's office, sitting in the chair behind the desk and staring out the window. The two of them had only just gotten around to talking when Yuugi's mobile rang and demanded he come to the LSVR chamber.

They'd expected… well, honestly, they'd been half-expecting a lot of things, but a kid completely disappearing from his pod while still reporting life signs was not one of them. Yuugi peered into the VR pod, conveniently keeping him turned away from everyone but Seto, who got a front-row seat to the bewildered emotions flashing across his face.

But eventually, a kind of reluctant determination settled there, and Yuugi tapped the glass once more before turning around. "This may not be an entirely bad thing."

"Entirely?" repeated Anzu.

"Well, I mean… he's still _in_ there, just…" Yuugi glanced back at the pod, then shrugged and looked to Anzu. "We can't see him, but that doesn't mean he's not there."

"You mean he's gone invisible?"

"Nnno… more like… I think, anyway, um… dispersed."

"What?"

"Like when a solid vision gets destroyed," he said, his fingers splaying to mimic an explosion. "The dust and light and particles and stuff are all still there, they've just separated and the little bits have become too small to see. Right?" he asked Seto, who nodded.

"More or less."

"Pausing my disinterest-leads-to-zero-culpability for just a second," Mokuba said, holding up a hand. "I have to point out that the kid's human…ish. Not a Solid Vision."

"Not yet," Yuugi agreed, leaning back on the pod. "But this could just be another step toward him becoming a digimon. And that naturally means his solid form would be in flux."

"Obviously, if he's been turning into a fox-looking thing every so often," Anzu pointed out. "What's that got to do with him disappearing?"

"We had a theory that digimon were connected to Duel Monsters, right? Well, this is kinda almost… proof, in a way. I mean, he's been turning into a digimon, but so far it's only been flesh and blood. But now, I think he's starting to take the final steps. I think he's… his cells or whatever are mutating and… I think he might be literally going digital. Like a Solid Vision."

"He's become real, live bio-technology," breathed Mokuba, and they looked at him, a little disturbed by his interest, but he only leaned back and tried to look unconcerned. "Not that I'm interested or legally culpable for anything that might be happening to the kid."

"Right," Anzu said slowly, shuffling away from him. "And… what does that mean, exactly?"

"Nanobots, artificially constructed organs, pathways into virtual reality, Five-Dimension Entertainment!" he said excitedly. "Biotechnology on a science-fiction scale means another zero in Kaiba Corporation's potential profit margin!"

Again, they all stared at him, until Seto sighed loudly. "It means that his molecules are all still contained within the VR pod, but probably too far apart or vibrating at too high a rate, due to their shifting status, to actually form anything visible. However, because he's still physically there, and mentally contained within the virtual world, we can still monitor his status."

"Oh. Thank you," she said, then looked at Yuugi. "While that's good to know, I don't see how this could be a good thing, grand scheme wise. We don't want him turning into data, do we?"

Yuugi didn't answer straight away, his eyes rolling off to the side. "Well, for one thing, I don't know anything about computers, so I could be wrong entirely. For another, this could be making him more powerful in that world. And third… well…" He shrugged awkwardly. "It's not really about what we want, is it? To be honest, I'm more worried about Kouji-kun."

"Kouji… which one is Kouji?"

"Tall, black hair; the twin with the darker clothes," he said, gesturing to the next pod. "This is going to sound even crazier than the 'person turning into digital information' bit, but he's giving me some really weird vibes right now."

Seto looked down at him, the closest he'd get to concern, and Yuugi winced apologetically. "It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't get them, I – I barely understand it myself. But Yami says they're waves of energy. Something's going on inside Kouji-kun right now that could make things really, really bad. And since he's supposed to be connected to the light, and all the monsters that are attacking right now are at least connected to the light-type, somehow…?"

"Ah." Seto frowned, looking away. "Hm."

"Hm?"

"A theory I have," he said vaguely, then paused, gazing at the apparently empty VR pod. "Is anything going to get worse if you're not here?"

"Me?" he repeated, raising his eyebrows. "No, not really. I mean, I'm usually support-based when we're the ones _leading_ the charge. This time, I'm really only here to give information and keep the other me from killing anyone."

Mokuba snorted, but Anzu just clocked him upside the head and frowned at Yuugi. "That's not true on any level."

He smiled, because it was, then turned back to Seto. "What do you need?"

Seto just turned on his heel and walked out, leaving Yuugi to roll his eyes and smile at the others again. "I guess I'll see you later. If the other me calls, tell him I'm playing Halo in Mokuba's office. That should keep him out of our hair for a while."

"The poster boy for nice-guy world saviours, ladies and gentlemen. Watch him lie through his teeth for the good of all," Mokuba said cheerfully, and even Anzu laughed as Yuugi trotted out after Seto.

* * *

><p>Kouji smiled as he slipped his digivice back into his pocket. They had defeated Puraido, the last of the haato. That meant they could restore the digital world to the way it was meant to be, and he could focus on getting Takuya back to normal. On getting him back home, where they both belonged.<p>

But when he looked over at Takuya, his partner only managed a weak smile before collapsing, his sword clattering against the ground louder than it should have.

"Takuya!"

"I'm okay," he gasped, his arms shaking as he pushed himself up onto his knees. "I'm fine, I'm just –"

He croaked and started falling forward, but Kouji caught him by the collar and kept him from the dirt until he could kneel down and hold him up by the shoulders. "That's not fine," he pointed out, and Takuya coughed out a laugh, nodding wearily.

"I think it was the water – it drained me more than I thought it did," he confessed, and then closed his eyes, taking deep, slow breaths. "How about you? You feeling okay?"

"The outfit took most of the damage," he said, picking at the ragged remains of his detested clothing. "But I'm not going to tell you 'I'm fine', because, unlike some idiots, I know when I'm not."

Takuya laughed, but the movement seemed to catch something in his chest, because he immediately leaned into Kouji's supporting arm with a painful cringe. It was only then that Kouji noticed Takuya was still holding onto his sword, gripping it so hard that his knuckles were white beneath the ragged remains of his gloves.

"Hey, let this go – it's dangerous to hang on to blades like that," he said, but when he reached for Takuya's arm, it twitched away from him, almost like a pained flinch. "Takuya…"

"It's fine."

"Don't do that," he snapped, and he intended to leave it there; just start wrestling the sword free and then tell Takuya he was an idiot for not admitting his arm was hurt, or whatever it was that was keeping his hand in that position. But he found himself still talking, just like before the fight. "I don't like seeing the people I care about get hurt. I definitely won't let my most important person hurt himself, either."

Takuya's head snapped up to stare at him, a blush spreading over his cheeks. "Kouji…"

He wanted to blush himself – pull back and—if he was honest with himself—probably start babbling about how he hadn't meant it the way it sounded. Of course, when he thought about it, he did sort of mean it the way it sounded, but – but that was why he didn't normally think about it! But, just as before, all his body did was nod, and lay his hand over Takuya's gripping fist. "Takuya."

"Kouji, I –"

"I'm gonna take you back and get you patched up. And then, we're going to talk."

* * *

><p>Takuya's fingers twitched slightly, and Kouichi felt himself let go of half a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Alright," he whispered. "I'm gonna let go on three."<p>

"Sure. One, two, three –" Izumi grunted as Kouichi shoved all of Takuya's dead weight onto her back. He flinched when she bent under the strain, but eventually her height and gymnast strength beat out Takuya's muscle-weight.

Honestly, they'd thought lifting him onto Izumi's back would be harder than it was. Despite how short he was growing up to be, Takuya was completely filled out with muscle, and Kouichi knew from past rugby games that he could barely tackle Takuya, let alone lift him off the ground. Maybe it was the fact his data was currently spinning in a bright, ominous circle around his waist, but somehow Takuya was much lighter in the digital world. He didn't seem that heavy at all.

Kouichi took a breath, wincing at the pain it sent shooting through his damaged chest, then looked over at the battlefield. So far, Junpei and Arogansu were still squaring off, but things had taken a turn for the worse. Izumi had kind of assumed Chakmon would cover their escape with his blaster, but as soon as Junpei had said Takuya had ruined his self-worth, Tomoki had dropped his blaster and was now gaping in shock. He didn't seem capable of defending himself, let alone providing cover fire.

"Okay," he said, quickly tallying up their situation. "Our two heavy hitters are out – one because he's been captured, the other is literally on the brink of deletion," He paused to reassure himself that Takuya's fingers were still twitching, hinting that he would recover. "I've been pretty much beaten, and I don't bounce back as well as Takuya. Our one complete digimon looks too shocked to move, you've got your hands full with Takuya, and Junpei's never been a great fighter, let alone with these new –"

Izumi's foot lashed out to whack Kouichi's shin, but too late. Junpei's shoulders rolled back at the words, his lightning fading slightly, but Kouichi didn't really have time to notice. He was too busy staring at Izumi in shocked annoyance, and being glared at in response.

"Junpei is a great warrior," she snapped. "We'll be fine with him fighting."

He blinked. Even ignoring the last fight they had with Labu and Arogansu, he couldn't actually remember Junpei ever fighting anything with any level of success. Ever. Especially not on his own. "But he's –"

"Shut up!"

She just continued staring at him, angry and firm, when a flash of insight made him glance over at Junpei. The warrior of lightning wasn't looking at him, but the hurt expression on his face told that he'd heard. Kouichi grimaced, suddenly remembering why he left the harsh truth to Kouji, but there was no getting around the fact that it was, in his opinion, true. Takuya and Kouji were their best fighters, with Kouichi coming in a close third by virtue of being the balance to Kouji's Light. Junpei was just… a really good pyrotechnics performance.

"Words like that," Arogansu murmured, drawing all their attention, "from such faithful, honest friends… and you still believe you can beat me?"

Junpei's expression clouded, his shoulders rolling forward again. "Words like that, from faithful friends," he repeated, before slamming his fists together again and showering the ground around him with electric sparks, "are the very reason I deserve this judgement over you!"

"He's putting it –" Kouichi began, only to cut off in a yelp as Izumi kicked him again. He stared at her, but before she could answer, Junpei suddenly slammed his fist into the ground, lightning surging into the cracks his fist made in the tile and shooting toward Arogansu. The haato hissed as he was forced to leap sideways, but the charge continued regardless, sending shattered marble flying across the hall until the lightning finally crashed into the wall behind. Kouichi stared at the sheer power of the attack, only to jump as Izumi rushed past him, a blast of wind both supporting Takuya and pushing her onward.

"Come on! Now's our chance!"

"No! I will have him!" Arogansu shouted, but he couldn't even turn toward them before Junpei threw out his fist again, lightning exploding out and past the haato's outstretched arm.

"Keep your eyes on your opponent, moron!" Junpei yelled, running forward with both fists charged full of electricity. "You can worry about him _after_ you try to beat me!"

His arms crashed down only inches from Arogansu's dodging feet, and Kouichi paused, just watching the marble crack beneath Junpei's attack, before he shook his head and started sprinting after Izumi. With the fight behind them, running at full speed, it didn't take him long to reach the exit at the end of the hallway: a huge, once-intricately engraved set of doors made out of what looked like some kind of bleached wood, now chipped and beaten so badly that the designs were impossible to make out. He shoved one of them open, waiting until Izumi had passed through before slamming the door shut. He simply leaned against it for a moment, getting his breath back, before smiling at Izumi over his shoulder.

"Effective, yes, but he was laying it on a little thick, don't you think?"

"Junpei?" she asked, shifting Takuya to a better position on her back. His whole fist was now clenching, the fingers flexing halfway open before closing again. "What do you mean?"

"The whole self-pity, blame-Takuya-for-everything thing." He straightened up and turned to face her properly. "It caught Arogansu's attention, but it was a little… dramatic, to put it mildly."

She pursed her lips, looking off to the side, then shrugged. "The best lies are the honest ones," she said quietly, then frowned at him again. "But anyway, what was all that about you not thinking Junpei's strong enough to do that? In the digital world, he's always been the strongest out of all of us!"

"What? No, Ardhamon—"

"—is the most _powerful_ fighter," she finished, then raised her eyebrows again. "In a match of pure strength, Blitzmon could have kicked Agunimon's butt six times over. Which means that if he'd evolved further, he probably could have kicked Ardhamon, too."

Kouichi blinked, and she shrugged, then winced and jumped to make sure Takuya didn't go sliding off her shoulders. "You joined us around the same point that everyone except Takuya and Kouji kind of became a little useless in the big battles. I guess I can understand you not knowing how strong he was… but seriously, how could you not pick up on that when we _did_ fight?"

He hesitated, then shook his head and turned away. "Kouji was a little more important to me, at that point. I only really noticed how strong Takuya was because he and Kouji did everything together. Tomoki was really smart, you were really pretty—" She grinned, and he swallowed quickly, avoiding her gaze. "—Junpei was just… there. Y'know?"

"No. Junpei's always been more than 'just there' to me," she said, and he glanced at her sideways.

"I always thought you found him annoying."

"I don't –!"

"I wasn't saying you do," he said quietly, making her straighten defensively. He glanced over his shoulder at the door, then coughed and turned forward again. "I was just saying that's what it seemed like, back then. Sometimes even now."

She frowned, then sighed and juggled Takuya a little higher on her shoulders. "We should get going… Junpei'll be fine, and we need to find Kouji."

"Yeah…"

* * *

><p>"<em>Thor Hammer<em>!"

Arogansu screamed as Junpei's electricity-charged fists crashed down against the nape of his neck. Under the sheer force, his shoulder literally caved in, flames bursting up around Junpei's hands even as they continued down past the haato's arm. He tried to stumble back, but Junpei was faster, pulling his fists free of the fire only to thrust them up into Arogansu's stomach. The hit threw him back and away to crash against the broken marble floor, where he collapsed, groaning as fire coated and healed his wounds.

"You're big, and you're strong," Junpei said, cracking his knuckles as he straightened up. "But Blitzmon was stronger."

"You're not a digimon," he panted, and Junpei nodded.

"I'm not. But I figured it out, you know? Takuya thought that as we're getting older, we're becoming more like our spirits. I don't know if I'm turning into a digimon, like Takuya, but in this world, I can sure as heck channel Blitzmon's power," he said, and then slammed his fist into the ground, thrusting electricity down through the cracks to shock Arogansu again. The haato yelled out at the pain, but no fire appeared, and Junpei simply straightened up to look at him again. "There's probably a reason why Tomoki can turn into Chakmon, while the rest of us can only adapt powers we used to have. Maybe it's got something to do with why Takuya turns into Flamon. I don't really know."

"Takuya, Takuya, Takuya…" Arogansu growled as he slowly clambered back to his feet, one arm hanging limp as he glared from under his no-longer impeccable hair. "Even you. Is he all you people ever think about?"

Without thinking, Junpei grabbed a lightning bolt from the air and threw it at Arogansu's feet, earning a yelp and the smell of burning rubber. He barely noticed, though, his eyes locked on the haato's own. "It's hard not to. He's just so _there_ in every moment. He's always been like that, and he doesn't mean to be. He doesn't actually talk that much, but you can't help but notice him. He's just always _there_." His fist clenched, and he closed his eyes, trying not to sigh. "But you know, people like him, they don't have to say anything, do they? They don't even have to _want_ to be involved, but somehow they always are. He doesn't _want_ everyone's respect, but that's only because he doesn't have to work to earn it! He just gets it, because…"

The quick thump of feet made him open his eyes, but too late. Arogansu's good shoulder slammed into Junpei's chest, tackling him to the ground and sending them both sprawling. Junpei tried to scramble back to his feet, but he had always been strong, not fast. Within seconds, Arogansu was crouched over him with one knee on Junpei's chest, his good arm holding his neck.

"Why?" Arogansu demanded. "Why does he get that respect? Because he takes it! Because he demands it, because he's so arrogant as to believe he deserves it, and for what? What has he done to earn it?"

"He saved this world," Junpei said blankly, only to gasp as Arogansu's hand slapped hard against his throat.

"You saved this world! I know the story! I know that all of you joined together, you _all_ saved this world!" he shouted. "What did he do? What did he do but lose control of himself and steal your spirits?"

"We would have given up if he hadn't –"

"And why did you listen to him?" he asked. "You _should_ have given up! Everything said you should have given up when you first met the Royal Knights! You should have surrendered when there was no more Digital World to protect! You should have let the other world be destroyed when Susanoomon was defeated the first time!"

"By that reasoning, we should've gone home when we first had the chance, back in Flame City!" cried Junpei, and Arogansu slammed him back against the floor.

"Exactly! And why did you stay? Because he said you should! Because he said he wanted to make a difference! And what difference did you think you could have possibly made?" he yelled. "You could—you _should_—have gone home! You went through all that pain, all that suffering, self-doubt, failure, all because he was so arrogant as to think 'it would all work out in the end'!"

Junpei clenched his eyes shut again, licking his lips as he tried not to remember thinking those exact words all those years ago. Tried not to remember those four stupid kids they convinced to go home before the Royal Knights could delete them. What was the difference between those kids and the kids they'd been when the adventure started?

"Takuya…" he whispered. "Takuya wouldn't go home until it was all fixed."

"And he won't go home again, now. There's nothing you can do for this world, now. There's nothing wrong with this world; it's not in danger of deletion! And yet he's decided there's something wrong, and he's decided he's going to fix it, and he won't go home until it's fixed!" Arogansu leaned down to hiss into Junpei's ear. "He's so arrogant that he won't believe this world is going on without him. And because you all give him that respect that he doesn't deserve, his arrogance means that you will all stay here until you die. You won't leave him here, and he won't leave until it's saved, even though it doesn't need saving."

Junpei's eyes snapped open in a glare. "You're wrong. The spirits have been –"

"Who cares if they're destroying things? The world is still fine, and it evens things out if such 'great heroes' are also such destructive creatures. Why should digimon respect what doesn't deserve respect?"

"It's not about respect," he said, and then thrust his palms up against Arogansu's sides. "It's about hope!"

Electricity surged up through his fingers, and Arogansu swore as he was thrown back and off Junpei's chest. Junpei followed after, leaping forward to catch Arogansu before he could recover, bringing them back down to the floor. He punched him across the mouth to keep him still, then clambered up and over to sit on Arogansu's chest, his knees holding the haato's arms down.

"You're the arrogant one here! You're so sure that you're right that you're just not listening to what I tell you!" he snapped, and then slammed one electricity-covered hand against the ground beside Arogansu's head, the other thrusting out to grip his throat. "I know Takuya's an annoying jerk! I know he's arrogant, and cock-sure, and so full of confidence when he's got absolutely no reason to be! I know all that, I said all that!"

"But you don't say it to him!" Arogansu yelled, and Junpei let his lightning build as a warning.

"Shut up! I'm not finished!" he shouted, then let the energy fade as he continued. "I hate him. I hate him so much sometimes, because Takuya is… The reason he's so damn happy-go-lucky and confident is because he's so frikking perfect! He's cleverer than most adults, he was the most powerful digimon in the world, he always knows just what to say, girls drool over him! He's got _every_ _reason_ to be arrogant."

"According to who?" Arogansu demanded.

"I don't know," he said weakly, curling his fingers into the haato's neck. "I don't understand it. He's short. He's bad at classes. He's always in trouble with teachers. He just wears the first clothes his hands touch in the morning. He doesn't think things through. But somehow… somehow, he just doesn't give up and that makes… that makes everything else… not matter."

Arogansu scowled, yanking at his trapped arms. "Because he's arrogant."

"Because he has hope," he corrected firmly.

"Whatever you call it," he snarled, pulling harder, "it's why I have to destroy him!"

"And it's why I can't let you," he shot back, then pulled both fists back and over his head. He clapped his palms together with a loud, echoing crack of thunder, pulling lightning from the air and down his arms.

"Go ahead and try it! You can't delete me! I regenerate from every open wound!" Arogansu cried, but he was still struggling, trying but somehow failing to overcome the strength of Junpei's legs keeping him pinned.

"I don't need to wound you," Junpei pointed out, and he curled his fingers in on his palms, pulling his arms away from each other and stretching out a long, wide ball of sparking electricity. "Regenerating fire or not, you're still data. My element is electricity, you idiot! One split-second power surge can destroy an entire computer's hard drive – what do you think a minute's worth of pure energy is gonna do to you?"

Arogansu blinked, then gasped, and Junpei immediately took the opportunity. He slapped his hands back together and slammed them down against Arogansu's open mouth, forcing the electricity down and through the haato's body, shoving it into every burning nerve and data strain. Without a wound to actively heal, no fire sprang up to undo the damage, and so Arogansu was left powerless, only twitching violently as Junpei continued pouring the energy into his system. His eyes were open, staring up at Junpei, but there was no anger or fear… just shock.

After only thirty seconds, Arogansu exploded in a wave of white-hot electric fire, throwing Junpei back and filling the room with blinding light. He groaned, clenching his eyes shut as he waited for the stars to fade, and flicked his hands to wave off any remaining electricity. After a moment, though, he felt something forming in the palm of his hand and instinctively curled his fingers around it, smiling as he recognised the shape.

"Digivice," he whispered, bringing it into his chest.

He smiled, and let himself fall back against the broken marble, and all the while, Chakmon stood back against the wall, his eyes wide and horrified as he realised his friends weren't the way he'd always thought they were.

* * *

><p>For some reason, Kouichi suddenly felt incredibly awkward, walking beside Izumi with Takuya on her back.<p>

He wasn't sure if it was because he was supposed to take Kouji's side in the argument he was having with Izumi over Takuya – or Takuya about Izumi… or both… Or maybe it was because she was still frowning at what he'd said about Junpei. Or, of course, it could have just been because they didn't actually know whether they were walking in the right direction.

Still, he would have preferred a better ice-breaker than for Takuya to suddenly jerk upright and burst into flame as he yelled, "Not them too!"

The fire hit her back and Izumi screamed, throwing him off with a burst of wind that made the flames roar higher, but Takuya only used the momentum to flip in mid-air and land on all fours, the fire covering him completely as he slid to a stop. By the time Izumi calmed down enough for both her and Kouichi to look around, the flames had faded, and Flamon's knees hit the floor, his eyes rolling back in his head as he collapsed again.

They stared in shocked silence for a few seconds, then exchanged mystified glances. "What…"

"…was that?" Izumi finished for him, but he shook his head as if it were her question.

"I dunno. Are you alright?"

"Um… yeah, I uh… I was just shocked; I could barely feel it through your coat," she said, but still dusted off her shoulders. "Is my hair okay?"

"No burnt follicles," he reported, and she laughed.

"Good… Wow, though, I mean… what the heck."

"No kidding. I don't think you should carry him anymore." He frowned, tilting his head back to peer at Flamon. "But I still don't feel up to carrying myself too far, let alone him. I guess we'll just have to leave him."

"Are you nuts?" she cried. "He's unconscious!"

"Chakmon was pretty out of it, and we left him."

"Surprised, shocked, sure, but also with Junpei! You want to just leave Takuya here, unconscious and defenceless, alone!" She stopped herself, then huffed out a breath and lifted an arm as if to keep him at bay with an extended arm. "Okay, normally, I like your blunt realism, but right now I just need you to shut up and let me think."

"Let _you_ think?" he repeated. "This was _your_ idea, carrying him away from the others! It was your idea, leaving Junpei—_Junpei_, of all people—alone with that psycho –"

"Junpei was the best match with Arogansu's strength!" she snapped, and he threw up his arms in exasperation.

"Look, Izumi, Junpei is a great guy and I respect him – he's the only person I actually wanted to call 'upperclassman'. But he is not a fighter."

"Oh, and I suppose you think you would have done so much better."

"Not in this state, I know, but there were –"

"Not in this state? So you mean you could have normally," she surmised, and set her hands on her hips with a scowl. "You think you're stronger than him. Stronger than me, too, I bet."

"It's not 'think', Izumi. Duskmon flattened all five of you without even trying," he pointed out, and she scoffed loudly. It almost sounded more like a raven's bark.

"So, just because you got filled to your eyeballs with Cherubimon's corrupting power, we're supposed to think you're better than us?"

"Izumi, my element is darkness, the balance to Kouji's light. It's only natural that I'd be stronger than things like thunder and wind." He closed his eyes, waving it off. "But that's just raw power, not the ability to channel it. Everyone knows that the best thing I did for us is accept my death so all my power could be transferred to Kouji."

"First of all, we decided years ago that self-pity is not a good look for you, so cut that out. Second, you arrogant jerk!" she cried, stepping up to glare into his eyes. "I thought you were different, but you're just like Kouji! Light and darkness aren't the be all and end all! Junpei is smart, and funny, and the strongest of any of us! Against someone like Arogansu, he was our best chance!"

"Pure strength can't win against pure strength!" he shot back, his hackles rising as he hunched over to glare at her as well. "We could have just run away and come back once we'd gotten Kouji and some weapons! But now he –"

"No…"

They both jerked around at the weak voice, then blinked as they saw Flamon's data ring had disappeared back inside him. He was clutching at the ground, hunched in on himself as he whimpered.

"Agunimon… no… not them too…"

"Flamon," Izumi murmured, and hurried over to kneel beside him. "Flamon, shh, it's okay."

"No… no… everyone…" He cringed away from her touch, his claws scraping against the concrete. Kouichi frowned. He didn't think Flamon had claws on his fingers.

The odd thought drew him out of his fury for a moment, and he blinked, suddenly unsure of where it came from. It wasn't that he didn't believe any of the stuff he'd said, but it wasn't anything he actually wanted to say aloud, and it was nothing to get into a fight about.

He hesitated, then moved over to crouch beside her. "Alright, Izumi. What do you think we should do? Wait here until he wakes up and hope he can walk?"

"I don't know," she murmured, her frown only increasing as Takuya's mutterings died down. "I don't know, I never knew. It was always Takuya and Kouji… or even just Junpei giving weird suggestions that made sense. I always counted on them to know what to do."

Kouichi gazed at her silently for a few seconds, then lowered his eyes. "I guess… we were all a little like that. Are still."

"And now they're taking everything away," she whispered, and reached out to touch Flamon's stubbed horns. "Everything I've ever depended on is falling apart. Takuya's fading from us, Kouji's being such a jerk these days… My first time here, this world made me realise how much I need other people, but all I ever seem to do is drive them away. And now you're saying Junpei's as good as dead…"

"He – he might have gotten out," he offered quietly, but when he tried to touch her shoulder, she slapped him off.

"You mean he might have won! Junpei is stronger than you think! He's going to beat Arogansu, somehow. He has to!" she cried, then looked at him, her eyes shining with stubborn tears. "He has to. I can't lose him too."

"You'll never lose me, Izumi-chan."

They both flinched and spun around again, Izumi actually crying out at the sight of Junpei standing at the end of the hall, scorched, tired and leading a still stunned, human Tomoki by the wrist, but alive.

"J-Junpei?" Kouichi murmured incredulously. "You – you really won?"

His eyes narrowed slightly, but he inclined his head, and that was all they could get through before Izumi cried out again, lurching to her feet and sprinting down the hall.

"Junpei!" she wailed, practically knocking him off his feet as she wrapped her arms around his neck. She added something in Italian which none of them understood, but it was pretty obvious from the way she buried her head in his shoulder.

Junpei just smiled and wrapped his free arm around her. "Hey, we're okay, Izumi…"

A soft noise made Kouichi look away from the scene, only to see Takuya's eyes had opened a slit, his brow still furrowed and worried. Kouichi leaned down to peer at him a little closer. "You awake?"

He rolled his eyes up to meet his gaze. "You okay?" he mumbled, and Kouichi frowned.

"Better than you."

"No, I mean…" He blinked wearily, as if the effort of speaking was tiring. "I mean… I don't know what I mean…"

"Flamon?" He touched Takuya's shoulder and shook him gently. "Flamon, Junpei and Tomoki are here. They beat Arogansu."

"Yeah."

"You know?"

"Junpei…" he breathed, and flexed his hand against the floor. After a moment, Kouichi realised he was trying to push himself up and grimaced.

"Uh… I don't think you're ready to do that just now."

"I have to be," he said, and managed to lift himself an inch off the floor before collapsing again. "Dammit…"

"Takuya," Junpei said, and Kouichi looked up in time to watch Junpei step up beside them, still holding Izumi to his side and pulling Tomoki by the wrist. "When'd he change?"

"He freaked out a minute ago," Izumi said quietly. "Burst into fire, turned into Flamon, and then blacked out again."

Junpei frowned, and then disentangled himself from the others and knelt down on Flamon's other side. "Yo, Takuya. What's going on? You look like you can't move."

"M'fine," he muttered. "Just having a little trouble getting up this morning."

"Yeah. Having the data knocked out of you twice in one day'll probably do that to a guy." He reached down and, despite Kouichi's half-formed objection, helped Takuya get up onto his knees.

It took some doing to keep him that way, but eventually Takuya managed to stay upright on his own, and fixed Junpei with a determined look. He swayed for a few seconds, then said, "I believe in you. You know that, right?"

Junpei blinked once, and Kouichi noticed Tomoki violently flinch, but Takuya just continued staring at Junpei, until he nodded once.

"I trust you," he said, as firmly as his weak voice could manage. "I want to say thank you."

"Takuya?"

"I just wanted to say that," he said, then bent his head and took several deep breaths before pulling one leg up from underneath him. He nearly fell over, but both Junpei and Kouichi caught him and held him steady, before exchanging nods. Junpei twisted around, and Kouichi grabbed Takuya's other arm, and they hauled him up onto Junpei's back.

"I need to walk," Takuya mumbled, even as his head dropped onto Junpei's shoulder. "I'll be better once I walk it off."

"You okay with him? He might catch fire again," Kouichi warned, but Junpei just hitched Takuya's legs up over his hips.

"I like this jacket, Flamon. You so much as singe it and I pull out your horns."

"Duly noted," he mumbled. "Let me down and I won't come anywhere near it."

"Sure thing," he said, and started walking toward the far door. Kouichi and Izumi exchanged glances, then nods and hurried to lead the way.

For a moment, Tomoki could only stand still, before quickly shaking his head and trotting after. "Junpei… Junpei, wait."

"What is it?" he asked, looking down but not pausing.

"About… about what Arogansu said – about what you said – I –"

"It's nothing, Tomoki, don't worry about it," he said quickly. "It's just like what I said at the end: it's about hope. He's got a lot of it, and sometimes, when you don't have any yourself, that can be really hard to deal with."

Kouichi glanced over his shoulder, but quickly looked away again when he saw Junpei had noticed. Tomoki didn't, though, and continued talking. "But about what you said earlier on… you… you said you ha- hated…"

"Ah, look, Tomoki, it sounded a lot worse than it is. I hate everyone sometimes. Comes with being a teenager. You'll learn that once you've got a few more months of being thirteen under your belt," he said, nodding wisely, but Tomoki wasn't deterred by the patronising tone.

"You know he never would have meant to destroy anything of yours, let alone your confidence in yourself. Like he said: he trusts you – _believes_ in you!"

"Leave it alone, Tomoki," Takuya mumbled. "Junpei and I will have the big deep, meaningful and possibly violent discussion after we've absorbed a few more corrupted spirits."

Even Kouichi flinched that time, glancing back at him, but when Takuya lifted his head it was to look at Tomoki. He paused a moment, then looked at Junpei instead. "Though really, I feel bad about you carrying me after all that."

He raised an eyebrow. "You _were_ unconscious and in another room when I was fighting Arogansu, right?"

"I… was," he agreed, but he didn't look sure of it, until he abruptly shook his head and patted Junpei's shoulder. "I should be walking. I'll get better if I walk."

"Let me do this," he shot back, and Takuya frowned at him, then nodded and lowered his eyes to his hands, flexing them into fists. Junpei hesitated, then sighed and glanced at Tomoki sideways. "Don't worry about it, okay? I might hate him sometimes, but never for long. He's my friend, and I know he wouldn't hurt me on purpose."

Kouichi looked at Izumi sideways, who closed her eyes and didn't look around. They all liked to pretend Junpei's feelings for her were—and always had been—some silly little crush. But they weren't, and hadn't been for a long time. Takuya went through periodic bouts of self-loathing because of what he and Izumi did, because he knew how Junpei felt. Izumi always denied it, but Kouichi was pretty sure she did, too.

But… that was the thing. Wasn't it? That was why Kouji had gotten so angry as to hit him. Because Takuya never _meant_ to hurt anyone. He just did what he felt he had to do. And because he was honest, he could never apologise for things unless he could honestly say he would have done them differently if given a second chance – which, because he was usually as honest with himself as he was with everyone else, he never would.

It was like now, with the digital world, and how obvious it was Takuya would stay here if given half a chance. Even though he'd almost died multiple times since they'd gotten here, and even though the digimon hated them all right now, and even though things were so screwed up… he'd still stay here. And that was hurting everyone, for various reasons, but Takuya still wasn't making any effort to hide how much he wanted this world. Because he'd always just wanted what he wanted, and damn the consequences, because 'everything would work out somehow'.

No wonder Arogansu had wanted to kill him. Now Kouichi was actually thinking about it, he kind of wanted to, himself. Because who really thought like that? It didn't make any sense. What was it supposed to be, like, if you believed hard enough, you could stop the world from ending? What did it even _mean_, 'everything will work out, somehow'?

Honestly. It was like he didn't even think. He just ruled everything with how he felt. With his heart, or something. No wonder he wanted to live here; you sure as hell couldn't survive like that in the real world. He –

The thought made Kouichi stop, only a metre from the door to the next hall. The others kept walking, even Tomoki overtaking him, but he continued standing still, the last sentence just running through his mind over and over again.

There was something important, there.

But then Izumi opened the door, the others all gasped, and Kouichi completely forgot what he'd been thinking.

"Kouji!"

* * *

><p>[<em>Program Error… Reboot Required<em>]


	21. Innocent Love

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty

_**Innocent Love**_

**TRUFAX:** Emotions have thin lines and don't mean the same thing to everybody. Mokuba, Seto, Yuugi, Yami, and every single main battle pair among the Chosen Children since Taichi and Yamato have taught us this…

* * *

><p>It took some doing to get Takuya back to Seraphimon's castle, to the point that Kouji ended up literally carrying him half the way. The moment they passed through the barrier, Sorcerymon appeared and took one look at Takuya before spiriting him away for healing.<p>

Part of Kouji wanted to go with him, and talk everything out so they could just… just get it settled. But he knew he couldn't. He had to talk to the others first. No matter how simple it was in theory, if he didn't the others' approval, then… then it just wouldn't be right.

He talked to Kouichi first, and then explained everything to Izumi, expecting horror, anger and disgust from both. Instead, Kouichi laughed in his face and told him it was about time, while Izumi burst into grateful tears as she explained she'd finally realised her feelings for Junpei, and had just been worried about Takuya being left alone. After that, Junpei and Tomoki were easy. Junpei figured this was taking two of his potential rivals off the market, and Tomoki said that anything that was good for Takuya was okay in his book.

And Kouji planned to be the best thing that ever happened to his best friend.

Whether Takuya liked it or not.

* * *

><p>"The thing about Light," said Yami, as his Black Magician Girl threatened a Silent Swordsman Level Zero's head with her sceptre, only to panic as it started crying, "is that people don't realise it can be even more dangerous than Darkness. Will you just beat him over the head already?"<p>

Black Magician Girl blanched, offered up a weak, apologetic smile, and then did as instructed. The Swordsman huffed in annoyed disappointment as it dissipated, and Black Magician Girl jumped over its head to move onto a Blockman.

Jounouchi, still aching from the beating the Light Monsters had given him and Mai before Yami showed up, watched her go before turning back. "But they're so tiny."

"And cute," Mai added, leaning on her boyfriend's back. "How can something that cute be so dangerous?"

"Several ways. The first should be obvious, because it's how Yuugi can be so powerful, too," he said, absently tossing out a card to give Black Magician Girl a power-up with her magic book. "Light builds in power over time, slowly, so you never notice how impressive it is until it's bearing down on you at twenty-three hundred points. It also has strength in numbers – a single light bulb doesn't put out enough heat for you to notice, but when you're surrounded by them, you start to sweat."

His head rose, and he frowned as he looked over at the battle. Almost as if to support his argument, Black Magician Girl was being surrounded by Marsh Melons, to the point that she had jumped up into the air and was clutching her book with a pitiful whimper. Yami grimaced at Jounouchi, silently pausing their conversation while he played magic and trap cards. Once Black Magician Girl was free again, and had been joined by the Black Magician, Yami turned back to his friends.

"Light can also be dangerous in ways that, thankfully, aibou is not. Usually," he added with a wry smirk. "People assume that light is about happy things – love and beauty, et cetera. But it's not. It's about innocence."

"Innocence?" they repeated, and he nodded, his gaze flicking back to keep an eye on Black Magician.

"Think about it. Love—true love—makes you possessive. Jealous. Those are things we associate with the Dark. Beauty invites vanity. Heroism and self-sacrifice, even, are ultimately a symptom of arrogance – the belief that you can do something no one else can. They're all grey, at best… Dark at worst." His eyes narrowed as Black Magician had to twist fast to avoid a spear, but the sorcerer simply turned the dodge into an attack, blasting a Fairy Archer that had been lining up to shoot his apprentice. Yami tilted his head back but kept his hand on his deck. "Innocence isn't capable of those things, because it can't understand them. That's why children can be so cruel: because they don't understand the consequences of the things they say and do. True Light is dangerous because it could cut off your leg and then honestly ask why you aren't standing up."

"My god," murmured Mai, and Yami shrugged.

"It can have its advantages. Yuugi's ties to Light, no matter how diluted they are, are probably the only reason he didn't get rid of the Millennium Puzzle in the early days," he said bluntly. "But, that said, it's probably also the reason I don't trust that brat Kouji. He reeks of Light, and given his relationship with the Fire-type, I can already guess the problems it will cause."

"Relationship?" she repeated, and Jounouchi grimaced.

"Pretty classic case of More Than Best Friends," he explained. "Y'know… over-protective, little obsessive… like me and Yuugi might've been if Yami hadn't been around to complicate things. Pretty typical of kids that've saved each other's lives on a regular basis."

"He's still human enough to feel, but not enough to think his feelings through before acting on them," Yami added, cycling his wrist absently. "In Light, even if his feelings _were_ just about partnership, they'll probably result in 'he's mine and that's final'."

Having met more than her fair share of men with a far more basic and human version of that exact perspective, Mai cringed. "Can't he just do the same as every other repressed teenager – listen to pop-punk and pine?"

"Too Dark. His brother probably does that," Yami said, then swore and snatched another card as Black Magician Girl was blasted back against a building. "Try aibou's mobile again – I swear these things are using fire-support trap cards and I could use his perspective."

"Roger that," Jounouchi said, and pulled out his phone, while Mai folded her arms under her chest and watched as Yami began fighting for real.

"What is it that Yami thinks is going to happen with this Light kid, exactly?"

"Like I'm supposed to know what Yami thinks?" replied Jounouchi, lifting his mobile to his ear. "But if I hadta guess, I mean… hell, when I don't want to spend time with you, you've joked about hitting me over the head and dragging me back to your hotel room by my hair, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…" Her smile faded as she realised what he was getting at. "You're kidding."

He just raised his eyebrows in response, then flinched and turned his attention to the phone. "Hey, Yuug', so, it kinda looks like we might have more of a situation than we thought…"

* * *

><p>Takuya leaned back as he looked around the room, his hands tightening on Junpei's shoulders.<p>

It was wrecked now, with broken furniture and smashed windows, but there was no hiding the fact that this had once been the Digital World's version of a Christian church. Stained glass windows, pews, marble and even an altar positioned in front of a massive organ.

It looked exactly like the one Merecuremon had nearly killed him in.

But there were more important things to worry about than his phobias, so he shoved that aside and instead focussed on what was on the altar. Kouji was lying sprawled across it, one arm and leg hanging over the sides. He might have looked asleep, except that Kouji would never sleep through someone entering a room, or look so gangly while doing so.

"Kouji…" Kouichi breathed, and then shoved past them all to run toward his brother. "_Kouji_!"

"Kouichi, wait, it could be a trap!" Izumi cried, but even if he hadn't ignored her, the concern was for nothing, as Kouichi stumbled up the steps and grabbed Kouji's shoulders without incident.

"Kouji – Kouji! Wake up, please!" he cried, shaking him roughly. "Please! Open your eyes, please! C'mon, Kouji…!"

They watched in worried silence for a moment, then looked around warily. "Where's Labu?" asked Junpei.

"Dunno. Let me down," Takuya said firmly, and this time Junpei didn't argue, bending until Takuya could just touch the floor when he put his feet down. As soon as he let go, Takuya almost immediately toppled over, but caught himself and paused, holding Junpei's jacket for support. After another moment, he managed to stand on his own, and walk a few steps away. "Everyone get ready to dodge. Kouji and his issues are gonna be enough to deal with without anyone else getting lost in lovey-dovey perfect worlds."

"I hear that," agreed Tomoki, pulling out his digivice.

"Are you going to be alright?" asked Izumi, and Takuya smirked.

"Can't do much about it if I'm not."

Up on the altar, Kouichi seemed to have finally given up, and he turned to the others with wide eyes. "He's not waking up… what do we do?"

"Simple. You give him what he wants."

They all spun around with a gasp, and Takuya summoned a fireball to attack, but it faded almost immediately. He quickly lowered his fist out of sight and hoped everyone that had noticed thought it was out of better judgement, as Labu stepped out of the shadows to lean against one of the ruined pillars.

From the appraising glance Labu gave him, Takuya knew he wasn't fooling anyone, and so made the extra effort to put some kind of authority into his voice as he demanded, "Wake him up. Right now."

"Can't," he replied simply. "My attack is called the Wish Mist. It puts its victims in a world where everything is as they truly desire. Where they can feel wanted, needed and loved. And the only way for anyone to wake them up is to show them they already have what they want."

"That's ridiculous," snapped Izumi. "Junpei got hit by those darts of yours and he woke up just fine on his own!"

"No he didn't," Kouichi said slowly, staring at her. "He only woke up after you touched him."

"After she showed she cared," Takuya murmured, looking up at Junpei, who blushed and averted his gaze. "Oh, Junpei…"

"The further the dream is from reality, the harder it is to wake them," Labu pointed out, and then smirked at Junpei. "Perhaps your dreams are not as hopeless as you think, my flabby beetle."

"Hey!" he yelped, and slammed his fists together, calling on his lightning. "D-don't go talking like you know anything about us! I mean, me! I mean – shut up and prepare yourself!"

"Do you really think fighting's a good idea right now?" he asked mildly. "I know what the doggy dreams. Do you?"

They all stiffened, and then exchanged glances. Kouji was already needed by the whole digital world, as well as his friends, and anyone who didn't think he was wanted or loved clearly hadn't met Kouichi.

Labu paused another moment, letting their confusion sink in, and then smiled at Takuya. "How about an offer? I'll tell you how to break the spell if you come with me, digihuman."

"What?" he snapped, taking a step forward. "What kind of a deal is that?"

"It all ends up the same," he murmured. "I'd take more satisfaction from absorbing his data, but once we have yours, it's all the same."

"Stop talking nonsense, you bastard!" he shouted, and threw out an arm, refusing to let himself wince when the only flame to appear was weak and dissipated almost immediately. He was going to be useless in a fight. "You want me, you come and get me. But if you're not willing to take all of us on to get what you want, then you might as well just give up now and tell us how to free Kouji!"

"Hmm, I wonder about that," he murmured, tilting his head back, then huffed out a breathy laugh and took a step forward. "Alright, how about this: what if I told you that the doggy dreams of love?"

"Love?" repeated Izumi. "So… we just have to go show Kouji we care about him? Isn't that what Kouichi –"

"Not that sort of love, heartbreaker."

She flushed, taking a half-step back, but Tomoki's eyebrows had nearly hit his hairline, and he didn't wait for her to respond. "You mean real love? Like, girls and boys and kissing and –"

Labu just grinned nastily, while Junpei buried a hand in his hair. "Jeez… talk about hard to pick. Does anyone even know who Kouji likes? Kouichi?"

"Don't look at me," he said, shrugging helplessly. "We don't talk about that sort of stuff. Takuya?"

"You gotta be kidding. With how he reacted about –" Takuya stopped himself, glancing at Izumi. "No way I was raising the subject, and the only time he did was to tell me off."

Labu giggled. "I wonder why…"

Takuya, Izumi and Kouichi all blinked, then exchanged glances and groaned. "The person he likes is in this room, aren't they?"

"I knew it!" Junpei yelled, and spun around to point at Izumi. "I _knew_ it! Even when we were kids, I knew there was something going on between you two!"

"What?" she yelped, gaping at him, and he stamped his foot, his fists clenched.

"He's your mystery boyfriend, isn't he? I _knew_ it! That big fight that started all this wasn't a fight at all, was it? It was just –"

"Junpei, don't be ridiculous!" she shouted. "If he's dreaming of what he wants, and he already had me, then he would have already woken up, wouldn't he?"

He stopped, then blinked, before huffing and turning away. "I guess."

"And besides, I haven't been even vaguely interested in Kouji that way since we first left this world! For crying out loud."

"Why not?" asked Kouichi, only to wince and smile apologetically as the others gave him incredulous looks. "I was just asking…"

"Whatever," Junpei muttered.

"Still, no wonder he got so mad about your boyfriend," Takuya pointed out, and folded his arms with a heavy scowl. It was probably just how angry he was at Kouji to begin with, made worse by the church and how weak he was feeling, but he really didn't like the idea of Kouji having a crush on Izumi. Not to mention that it kind of hurt that he hadn't come out and said something when they started making it a regular thing. "So? What are you waiting for? Go on up there and tell Kouji you love him and we can get back to kicking Labu's butt."

She frowned, pulling Kouichi's coat tighter across her shoulders. "Do you think telling him that will be enough?"

"I don't!" Labu called, and they all scowled at him.

"Well, what if she went up there and kissed him?" Takuya demanded. "Would that do it?"

He grinned wider. "I believe a kiss from his beloved would probably do the trick, yes."

"No. No way," Junpei snapped, stamping his foot again. "I'm sorry, I want Kouji back as much as anyone, but no way Izumi should have to kiss anyone she doesn't love!"

"Junpei –" Kouichi started, but he just shook his head.

"No. No, I don't accept it. There's gotta be another way."

"It's alright, Junpei," Izumi said quietly, already walking forward. "I may not be in love with him, but I do love Kouji. If we leave him like this, there'll be no saving him from someone taking his data. Or core. A kiss is the least I could do."

"Izumi…!"

"It's alright," she said again, as she stepped up beside the altar. Kouichi stepped back, looking at his brother with a curious expression, and Izumi bent down until he was only an inch away. "By the way, Kouji, this is the worst confession I've ever gotten."

Despite himself, Tomoki snickered, only to stop at Junpei and Takuya's combined glares.

Izumi took a deep breath, then closed the gap and gently kissed Kouji's lips. She paused there, but when nothing happened after a moment, she began glancing around, wondering if she was doing something wrong, and then abruptly pulled back. "Well, that didn't work," she announced. "And I am _not_ doing anything more to prove I care about him."

"I don't get it," Takuya said blankly, and turned to look at Labu. "You said the person he's dreaming about is in this room."

"They are," he said lightly, his grin only widening.

"You also said a kiss would wake him up."

"I did, didn't I?"

"Izumi is the only girl in this room, and she's kissed him, and he's not awake," he snapped, weak flames licking their way out of his clenched fists. "You better stop jerking us around, or so help me, haato, I will –"

"Oh!" Kouichi cried suddenly, and they all looked at him. He just blinked back, then gaped down at Kouji. "_Oh_!"

"What?" asked Takuya, and Kouichi stared up at him, prompting Izumi to do the same, her eyes slowly widening in realisation.

"Oh… oh, that makes sense now," she said, and Takuya frowned.

"What does?"

There was a pause as they just continued staring between him and Kouji, and Junpei and Tomoki exchanged glances, then nods. They both turned to face him properly, dropping into synchronised bows.

"We'll leave it to you."

"What?" Takuya demanded, starting to get annoyed with them, too. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Congratulations! You really are breaking hearts all round!" Junpei said cheerfully. "It's a little weird, but hey, if he's not into Izumi, then that's fine by me!"

Takuya's eyebrow started to tick a little. "If you guys don't start explaining…"

"You're an idiot, Takuya," Tomoki said hopelessly. "If Kouji-san isn't in love with Izumi, the only girl in the room, then that means he's in love with one of the boys."

He blinked, his brow furrowing as his brain made the obvious connection. "Oh yeah…"

"He goes to all your sports matches and practices," Izumi said, ticking things off on her fingers. "He got mad when he found out about… the girl you liked. He's always the first to notice when something's wrong with you. You guys hang out _all the time_."

"You're pretty much the only person he talks about to our father, and the only person he'll tell personal stuff to," Kouichi added. "I can't believe I never thought of this…"

"You didn't think of it because that's all part of being a best friend," Takuya pointed out, and they all groaned.

"This is priceless," Labu cheered, and they all glared at him.

"Shut up!" Izumi snapped, then turned back to Takuya. "It makes sense, doesn't it? Add everything up. Everything that's been happening lately."

"He hit me!" Takuya shot back. "Guys don't hit… people… they l-like!"

"You don't normally want your friends to fall unconscious from smoke inhalation, either," Kouichi pointed out, and Takuya pulled back with a grimace.

"I… I…" He looked over at Kouji, then swallowed hard. "This is… O-okay, say I believe you. What if you're wrong? Are all of us going to kiss him until someone works?"

"We're not wrong," Junpei said cheerfully, his mood suddenly a complete reversal to what it had been. "But yeah, sure, why not?"

Takuya looked at him for a long moment, then huffed out a breath and started moving forward. "Fine."

Izumi flinched. "Fine?"

"Fine," he repeated irritably, focussed on not letting on how not-okay to walk he was. Noticing he was too short to lean over the altar as Izumi had, he had to clamber up over Kouji's side, wincing as it pulled at his injuries, and then scowled down at his best friend's sleeping face.

"B-but Takuya, you –" Izumi rapidly blinked. "You don't like boys."

He glanced at her, then back down at Kouji. "Like you said: I'll do what I have to in order to save him. Even if I do kinda hate him right now," he added under his breath, but Labu apparently heard and tutted under his breath.

"Ohh, that's harsh. Will you really make him leave a world where he's so very happy and so very loved to come to this one, where his beloved doesn't even like him that much?"

"I said 'right now'!" Takuya snapped, then visibly steeled himself before bending down and pressing his lips to Kouji's. He barely waited a second before pulling back. "Okay, so that proves –"

A soft mumble made them all look down, Takuya actually flinching. Kouji sighed out another soft mumble, his arm shifting over his side. Takuya blushed bright red, while Labu giggled and Kouichi leaned around the better to see.

"He's not awake, but he's getting there. I wonder…"

"Maybe it's because he's Flamon?" Tomoki suggested. "Kouji only likes the human Takuya, right?"

"Nah, he barely touched him, that's all," Junpei pointed out. "Try again. Longer this time. A real kiss, yeah?"

"What is your malfunction?" Takuya demanded, but Kouichi hummed his agreement.

"Give it time to work. That was more like the kind of kiss a mother gives her kids."

"I… mmrghh…" Takuya flushed even brighter, glancing around at everyone. This was so embarrassing, playing Prince Charming, on his best friend, _in front of everyone_, while really all he wanted to do was _yell_ at him for a few hours. He sighed, then slowly leaned down and tried again, this time actually closing his mouth over Kouji's bottom lip and trying a real, soft kiss. He awkwardly tapped his claws against the altar as he waited a good few moments, but just as he was about to give up and pull back, he felt something move beneath him.

"Oh, my gosh," Kouichi mumbled, and Takuya's eyes widened as he recognised what it was. Kouji was kissing him back. And Kouji's hand, which had been resting on his hip, was now gripping Takuya's belt to keep him in place as he pushed up into the kiss.

Something brushed against Takuya's lip and he flinched, trying to pull back, but Kouji's other hand had risen to grip his arm just above the gauntlet and was keeping him there. He glanced sideways, but all he could see was Izumi's shocked stare, and that was just about the last thing he needed right now. Instead, he looked back down at Kouji, and the easy set of the muscles around his eyes. He looked so calm…

But, slowly, Kouji began to pull back, his eyelids fluttering open. For a long few seconds, they just gazed at each other, Takuya amazed by the soft smile on Kouji's face. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen that. But it was quickly fading as Kouji took in his face, eyes flicking over the bushy red hair, around to his pointed ears, and then back to his large eyes.

Then he suddenly stiffened up with what could only be described as a shriek, and forcefully shoved Takuya off the altar, tumbling over the opposite side himself.

"That answers that, then," Junpei said brightly.

* * *

><p>He'd found Takuya sitting on the edge of the platform around Seraphimon's castle, shirtless but so bundled up in bandages you could barely tell. His arm was actually strapped to his chest, though he didn't seem to notice. He was staring out into the forest with tired eyes.<p>

"I thought Sorcerymon would be able to heal you completely," Kouji began, as he sat down beside him. "As if it never happened."

"No, he could only do that to damaged data. Which he did," Takuya glanced at him, then managed a small smile. "I can't evolve into Flamon anymore."

"Huh?"

"That's what he said. The reason I was doing it is because my data was damaged, and when he fixed it, he stopped the transformation. I can't evolve anymore. Not even with a digivice." He looked away again. "I'm totally human now."

Kouji continued gazing at him for a long few moments, unsure of how to respond. After a while, he opened his mouth, but Takuya cut him off before he could.

"You know, I'm almost kind of relieved. That I can't…" He stopped, then looked up at Kouji with a slightly broader, heartbroken smile. "It makes things simple."

"What things?"

"About – about what you were saying before," he said. "About me being your most important person. It's… truth is, Kouji, I know that. I've always known. Because you're mine too. It's just… you couldn't – we couldn't _be_ that to each other, because my place was here. It didn't matter how much I wanted to be with you, because I thought I belonged here. But now, I know I don't."

Kouji couldn't help the smile spreading across his face, even as Takuya stared at him with that soft, pained, but still perfect expression. "No. You belong back in the human world."

"With you," he agreed. "I mean, I know it probably sounds terrible, me only admitting this after I don't have another choice, but –"

"No, I get it," he said. "You want to protect this place. Of course you do. You wouldn't be Takuya if you didn't."

Takuya ducked his head, then shuffled closer to look at him from under his hair, blushing. "So… so about… everything…"

"Yeah?" he prompted, his smile slowly broadening into a smirk.

"When we go back, I mean. I know that without this world, there's no real reason for us to be partners and all that, but…" He shifted in closer still, until his front was touching Kouji's side. "I still think you're my most important person."

"I think that too. I don't think this world is all there is to it, either," he pointed out, tilting his head a little. "Which, logically, leads us to one other option."

"Trial and error," Takuya murmured, before leaning in for their lips to touch. It was slow at first, tentative, as if Takuya wasn't sure what he was doing. Not exactly experienced himself, Kouji just let it happen for a moment, closing his eyes and enjoying the sensation, until it felt like Takuya would pull away. Then he leaned in himself, copying the movements and reaching out to hold Takuya's belt, keeping him close. There was a soft mumble, halfway between a chuckle and shock, and Kouji pushed in closer, taking control.

He reached around to hold Takuya's good arm, pulling him in, even as he stopped feeling Takuya respond. It didn't matter. He finally got it – he actually understood. This was how things were supposed to be. He cared about Takuya more than anything – of course they should be together. It didn't matter what Takuya thought he wanted, this was just how it was supposed to be.

After a minute, he pulled back with a soft smile, finally ready to tell him so, only to immediately stop at the face that greeted him.

It was a dusky red, with pale pink markings on the cheeks. Bushy, fiery hair, and long pointed ears with piercings. And large, beautiful green eyes surrounded by sooty lashes. And no smile. Just wary confusion tinged with a hint of anger.

Not Takuya, who would be with him forever, but Flamon, who still belonged to the digital world.

Kouji shouted, shoving him off and rolling away, only to fall a few feet onto dirty marble. He blinked at it for a second, then looked up as a pair of heavy, buckled boots ran into his vision. Kouichi was staring at him with a mix of shock and concern.

"Kouji… Kouji are you… I mean… um…"

"What the…" He slowly looked up and around, not recognising their surroundings. It looked like… it looked like a Christian church. A huge, white marble church, with broken furnishings and cracked stained glass windows. He pushed himself up, shoving away Kouichi's helping hand as he took everything in.

Junpei and Tomoki were there, down near the shattered pews. Junpei was fighting off a grin for some reason, while Tomoki was staring back at him with the oddest expression. Like he'd seen something he couldn't quite believe or cope with. Izumi was on the other side of the altar, crouched beside Flamon, who looked just as damaged as Takuya had been, only untreated and cringing in pain as he tried to pick himself up off the floor. And Labu was behind them all, watching Kouji with a broad, terrible smile.

"Did you dream good dreams, little doggy?" Labu murmured. "How's it feel to wake up and realise none of it was real?"

Dreams… not real… "Dream?" he repeated, looking down at Flamon. He was clearly still a digimon, and wouldn't come home with him. Not like this. He clenched his fists as he looked back up at Labu. "That was all a dream?"

"Except the kiss. Well. That wasn't _real_ either. The digihuman only did that because I told him it would wake you up. The emotions certainly weren't. Not on his side, anyway," he said darkly, and Kouji bared his teeth in a snarl he didn't know he was capable of.

"You… why would you…"

"You fool. You really haven't caught on yet? What we want? Aside from the digihuman," he added thoughtlessly, as they all glared around at him. "What we're all focussed on? Look at how you're reacting! Such emotion, such _passion_! That's what I need." He twisted his arm up and around, forming a huge, shining white shield as he crouched down defensively. "You, with your logic and forethought and rationality… you're practically a machine. I had to bring out the emotion, or you would be completely useless to me. And now, I'm going to make it even better. We had a deal – you come out of your dream, and I get the digihuman."

"What?" cried Tomoki. "We never –!"

"Ask me if I care," Labu said, holding up a shining white dart for a moment before throwing it hard and fast. Takuya noticed at the last second and snatched Izumi to his chest before leaping up several metres into the air to avoid it. He flipped, then grunted as it pulled on one of his injuries, and both he and Izumi went crashing to the ground.

"Izumi!"

"Big Brother Takuya!" Tomoki snapped his hands out, data springing up around it. "Human spirit evolution!"

For a minute, Kouji could only stare blankly, watching from a distant point as Chakmon appeared, using ice and his skis to fend off Labu's darts while he and Junpei rushed toward Labu.

"Kouji…?" Kouichi prompted gently. "Are you alright?"

It had been a dream. All of it. Defeating the haato, all that time alone with Takuya, the way they'd fought together like the old days… even him realising how he felt, and Takuya admitting he felt the same. Takuya becoming human again. Realising he belonged with Kouji. It had all been a dream. Just so Labu could see how he'd react. And then, Takuya… just to wake him up, Takuya had…

"Tch."

"K-Kouji…?" Kouichi stumbled back against the altar, his eyes wide.

Sure, it had been a dream. But Takuya had still kissed him. Yes, it had been to wake him up, but it was proof that Takuya understood. They belonged together. It didn't matter if Takuya hadn't come to grips with what it meant. He'd still kissed Kouji because otherwise they couldn't have been together. That's just how it was. That's how it would be.

Whether the rest of them liked it or not, that was how it was going to be.

"And no second-rate computer virus is going to stop it," Kouji growled, and lifted one shining white hand to point at Labu. Kouichi cringed, backing away from the light, but it only grew brighter as Kouji realised what he had to do.

It was simple. Destroy Labu, because he was in the way. Then, he'd take Takuya back to Sorcerymon, and force him to turn him human again. Then, they'd go back to the real world, and he'd _make_ Takuya live again. That was all there was to it.

"_Solar Laser_!" he yelled, and the light shot out of him to slam into Labu's shield, shattering it into a thousand pieces. Everyone stopped, staring around at him, but he only growled and leapt up onto the altar, glaring down at Labu. "What passion? This just makes sense!"

Labu slowly turned toward him, taking half a step back, before Kouji roared out something that sounded more like a howl, even to his ears, and lunged off the altar, straight for the haato's neck.

His hands hit first, one wrapping around Labu's neck while the other cracked against his shoulder, and they went tumbling head over feet into the wall behind. Faintly, Kouji heard the others call out, but he didn't have time to listen to them. All he could see was bright, white light, and he dodged the darts Labu conjured almost unconsciously, focussed on building that light up to another laser.

But it was too long in coming, and Labu kicked him off, scrambling to his feet and summoning a dart while Kouji snarled at him through bared teeth.

"You are just like Puraido said," Labu snapped, glaring at him. "Don't you feel it? The anger, the humiliation? You've been fooled! He doesn't want you! He doesn't even love you!"

"Doesn't matter," Kouji barked, building the light up again. "Doesn't matter, because we're partners. We matter more to each other than anyone. We're supposed to be together."

"He doesn't think so!"

"He just hasn't come to terms with it yet," he said. "But it has to be that way. It's the only logical end to how we feel. It makes sense."

"Thank god I only need your core," Labu snapped. "All this rationalisation – if I didn't get to kill you I think I'd kill myself just listening to it!"

"Go ahead, I won't stop you!" he yelled, and then threw out both hands. "_Solar Laser_!"

Labu dodged around the burst of light, and then ran forward, getting up in front of him with dart raised. "You're so cold," he said, almost confused, before thrusting the dart down. Kouji caught his wrist and yanked it over his shoulder, bringing his own fist up to slam into Labu's gut.

"I don't need dreams," he said, and then let him go to twist around, bringing his leg up to crash into Labu's side, throwing him back against the wall again. He didn't give him time to recover, though, running forward to punch Labu's cheek and then crush his forearm against the haato's throat. "Just tell me why. Why would you do that? Make me see what's there? Make it all make sense? What benefit is that to you?"

"Because it was supposed to make you hurt!" he ground out, struggling to push Kouji's arm away. "Anyone else would be heartbroken! He doesn't love you! All that perfection you had in your dream is never going to come true! He only kissed you because it was the only way to wake you up! It's supposed to hurt you! Make you feel _something_!"

Everything was going pale in Kouji's eyes. He could still see Labu, but everything was so bright, and the words were coming from far off. He pushed harder. "So what if I had? What's the benefit?"

"Like I said: that's what we need! We need that emotion! Why do you think we all want the digihuman, even the ones who already have their cores? Because we need his passion! We need that – that human drive! The emotion! Or we'll never be free. We'll never make it to the other world!" He croaked as Kouji's arm finally cut into his breathing. "We all need our human cores… the emotional base they have… but without _his_ connection, and _his_ passion for this world… it… nngn!"

"He's mine and you can't have him," Kouji growled, building his light up in one fist again. "How's that for emotion?"

"Puraido… he said… you didn't have enough… That… I was more emotional… more… human… than you… That you were… too… rational." He gasped, his hands scrabbling at Kouji's sleeve. "The digihuman… Takuya… your love will… destroy him… Destroy both of you."

"Now that's illogical," he said blankly, and then thrust a fistful of light in and then through the haato's chest.

For a second, Labu only choked, his large blue eyes flashing up to Kouji's own. Then, they shone with a bright light, digitising into a large stream of data that swirled in front of him for several seconds before finally breaking down, but Kouji didn't reach for his digivice. He just let the data go where it would, and turned around to look at his partner.

Stage one complete, he had only to move on to stage two.

* * *

><p>[<em>Program error. Reboot required…<em>]


	22. The way things should work

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-one

_**The Way Things Should Work**_

**TRUFAX: **I am a Junpei/Izumi shipper, would you believe? The problem is teenagers. Always bloody teenagers.

* * *

><p>The church was silent as Labu digitised, his data slowly streaming up to snake around and into the shining figure that had been Kouji. Something about that reminded Takuya of Tomoki and Dependensu, but there were so many other panicked thoughts cluttering his head that he simply brushed it off.<p>

Even as the data faded, Kouji still shone like a star in the worst possible sense. Stars were white-hot and impossible to touch, and Takuya doubted his mind had provided the imagery on a purely visual basis.

Kouji turned, and somehow through the light, Takuya could see a pair of burning red eyes fix on him. He pulled back into Izumi, his hand instinctively curling further around his aching side.

"K-Kouji…?" Kouichi murmured, stepping around the altar. "Are you – are you okay?"

"Not yet," he said quietly, and began walking forward, his eyes still fixed on Takuya's own.

"H-hey, Kouji," Junpei called, lifting a hand as if to stop him somehow from halfway across the hall. "Seriously, man, take a break. Absorbing haato takes it out of all of us a little."

"There's no point in waiting. We have problems with clear solutions," he said calmly. "There's no sense in doing pointless things. No sense in waiting."

"Of course there's sense," cried Izumi, even as her hands tightened around Takuya's arms protectively. "You've spent days under a spell, and then woke up to this whole thing with… and now you've just beaten a haato single-handedly! Any one of those things would be cause enough to just sit down and relax for a few minutes!"

"Stop that," he told her. "You're complicating things. I know why, but it doesn't really make sense."

"What doesn't?" she asked quietly.

"Holding him like that. Acting like you care."

"Kouji!"

He waved it off, his hand leaving trails of light against their eyes. "Of course you care as a friend, but you shouldn't hold him like that anymore. It complicates things."

"What does…" Izumi shook her head, frowning at him. "Really, Kouji, knock it off."

"Yeah, you're kinda creeping us out," agreed Takuya, but Kouji didn't stop.

"Don't be ridiculous, Takuya. There's nothing to be scared of," he said, finally coming to a stop only when he would have otherwise had to walk over them. "Especially not between you and me."

"Look, you," Takuya began, but Junpei interrupted before he could finish, stepping up to push Kouji back a little.

"Hey, c'mon, Kouji, we're serious here. You're acting really weird. And we do have to talk about everything. Even putting aside what Labu was spouting, there's the whole you liking Takuya thing," he added with a grin. "How crazy is that? And to think I was worried the two of you were fighting over her!"

Kouji just stared at him for a moment, before his red eyes flicked down to Junpei's hand on his arm. Then he looked back up again. "We were."

"Well, yeah, I get that. I mean, I thought he had a thing for Izumi too, but hey, that's probably just me being paranoid, right?" he pointed out. "And he had no idea how you felt, let me tell you, so the whole fight's pretty much moot right now!"

"Yes. But it's not paranoia when you're right," he said, and the others flinched.

"Kouji," Kouichi snapped, moving forward despite how he had to wince to look at his brother. "You're not thinking straight."

"I'm thinking straighter than I have for a long time," he replied, still staring at Junpei. "For years, we've been lying. To ourselves, to each other, to Junpei… because we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But that doesn't make sense."

"Hold on a second," said Takuya, clambering to his feet only to cringe back when it hurt. He hissed, grabbing his side again, then stiffened up as Kouji touched his cheek, his fingers sliding down over Takuya's jaw. "Wha-?"

"It's time we set things right. Made them how they're supposed to be. And the best way to do that is to get everything out in the open where we can see them."

"What do you mean?" asked Tomoki, and they looked over at him. He'd unhooked his blaster, but kept it lowered as he slowly moved toward them, watching with worried eyes. "We know about how you feel now. We know how Junpei feels, too. Everything – everything is out in the open, isn't it?"

"Everything important has been said," agreed Izumi. She stood up, and gently pulled Takuya behind her, out of Kouji's reach. "Nothing else needs to be said."

He narrowed his eyes and took a step closer. "You're still doing it."

"Because you're acting weird, and it scares me," she snapped. "At least put a little inflection in your voice! You sound like you've been brainwashed!"

"No. You're doing it because you're still acting like you care. Because you've got into the habit. That's what lying to everyone does. It makes you lie even when things don't matter anymore. So I'm going to stop the cycle. I'm going to tell the truth." He looked back at Junpei again. "Izumi has never told you anything about her boyfriend because you've already met him. It's—"

"Kouji!" shouted Takuya.

"Stop it!" Kouichi yelled, stumbling as he tried to run forward without opening his eyes properly. "You're –"

"—Takuya," Kouji finished regardless. "Also, she never told you because she was ashamed. They're not really dating. They've just been sleeping together. For years now."

"Kouji," Izumi breathed, shaking her head as she took a step back. "How could you… how could you ever…"

He glanced at her, then back at Junpei, who hadn't moved. He was just staring back at him with slightly narrowed eyes, a tiny smile creeping over his lips. "You… you're lying, right? Or, not lying, just… look, Kouji, I know how it feels. But just because they're friends doesn't mean –"

"Takuya?"

They looked around at Tomoki, who ignored them, still staring at Takuya, who avoided his gaze. He was hunched in on himself, still gripping his side, but the look on his face said it wasn't all about the pain. He clenched his eyes shut and turned his head further away.

"No, y-you're lying," Junpei said firmly, looking up at Kouji. "They – no. Takuya wouldn't do that. He knows how I – he's always… no."

"It was the virus. What's turning us into digimon," he explained calmly. "It made their bodies think they needed to procreate. And, between the fact that Izumi is female and their beast forms are both bird-like, it was the logical solution. It wasn't their fault."

"Not their… you…" Junpei clenched his fists, his breathing speeding up as he struggled to keep control. "For three… you expect me to believe they've been sleeping together since we were fourteen, and it was just… what, an accident of _nature_?"

"There is no such thing as an accident. Just the sum of several environmental factors combined with inattention," he said blankly, but anything more was cut off as Izumi slammed into his side, shoving him back almost a metre.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" she cried. "You can't say stuff like that so calmly! You've just ruined everything, act you give a damn!"

"This… this is…" Tomoki's blaster hit the ground, and a swirl of data began wrapping around him, transforming him back into his human form. "How could… Takuya, you…"

"I'm sorry," he whispered, then spun around, his arms out as he stared up at Junpei. "I'm sorry! I didn't – we never meant to hurt you – we never meant it to go so far, it just –"

"You – you're sorry?" Junpei repeated quietly, then turned around as well, glaring down at him with wide eyes. "You're _sorry_?"

Izumi twisted around to look at him. "Junpei –"

"No! No, I don't want to hear it!" he yelled. "You – all this time, you've been everything—_everything_—I've always wanted to be! You've had it all, and the one thing that kept me from hating you for it is remembering that you were my friend! You were a nice guy, and you cared about me and we were _friends_! And now I find out you really do have it all. Even the one girl I've ever actually loved, you've had her, too. Even though you knew how I felt. You…!"

"It wasn't personal, Junpei, so stop taking it that way," said Kouji, folding his arms over his chest. "It was –"

"Shut up, light bulb!" he snapped, shoving a finger against Kouji's chest. "If today's proved anything, it's that you should get how I feel! But you don't, which just goes to show that you're a freak and whatever's making you glow like that is also making screwing with your head! So I don't have to listen to your crap right now!"

Kouji just raised an eyebrow. "Then why listen to what I've said at all?"

"What?"

"If you don't think I'm worth listening to right now, then why believe what I told you about Izumi and Takuya?" he asked.

"Because they –"

"They could be trying to calm you down. You clearly won't listen to reason right now, so maybe they're just humouring us," he pointed out. "Your logic is flawed."

He snatched Kouji by the front, unable to see what he was actually grabbing through the light, and yanked him close. "You want logic? Well, it's logical that you won't be able to talk with a fat lip, so let's see about that!"

"Junpei!" Kouichi shouted, and Takuya leapt forward to grab Junpei's arm and drag it back. Weak as he was, it only managed to pull him a little off balance, but it redirected his anger.

"Let go of me, Flamon, I'm not –"

"Put them both down, Junpei!" Izumi shouted, and he flinched, staring at her. She clenched her fists, her shoulders shuddering as tears spilled down her cheeks. "Don't you dare hit either of them. Don't you dare. I'm not – you don't have the right to be this angry! Nobody here betrayed you, because I'm not your girlfriend! I never was, and I never once _suggested_ I might want to be!"

They all blinked at her, Junpei slowly releasing Kouji's shirtfront. "Izumi…"

She shook her head hard. "No. No, Junpei, you – it's not fair of you to react like this! I don't belong to you! And I… it hurts that you love me so much, because I do care about you. But I'm not in love with you," she whispered hoarsely, and folded her hands over her chest. "I never have been."

Takuya slowly let go of Junpei's arm and stepped back, his gaze shifting off to the side, but the others continued staring at her blankly. For five years, the six of them had been friends, and anyone to meet them knew full well that Junpei was madly in love with Izumi. For most of them, it had always just been taken as a given that she would eventually come to see him the same way. The idea that she could even say otherwise, so seriously and bluntly…

"Junpei… for five years, Junpei, I have waited and hoped that you would find someone else. That you would stop caring about me," she said, and rolled her eyes, as if that would banish the tears that were quickly becoming angry. "All I ever wanted was for you to be happy _with someone else_! Even when we were kids, you… you didn't even show up on my radar that way. I just put up with your flirting and hoped it would go away. And here we are, five years later, and nothing has changed between us. And that breaks my heart, because you mean so much to me, but it's true. I am not in love with you, Junpei. And Takuya might have known how you felt, but he has always known how I felt too. He knew how it was. I was never yours in any part of this, so there was no betrayal. You are not allowed to act like this."

"But Izumi –" Tomoki began helplessly, but she just frowned at him.

"No. No, Tomoki, you're not even – don't act like this has anything to do with the rest of you. What happened between me and Takuya happened between us. It affects you guys because you're our friends and we should have told you we were in trouble, but for no other reason!" she cried, then looked between Junpei and Kouji. "We made no commitments to either of you. So neither of you have the right to react the way you have. Because we aren't in love with you."

They just stared at her for a long few seconds, nonplussed, before Junpei suddenly turned away, clenching his eyes shut, and Kouji blinked. "But… that doesn't make sense."

"What doesn't?" she snapped, and he frowned.

"You – you care about Junpei. And he's said he loves you. You should be together. That's logical."

"That's not how it works! One person doesn't just say something and make it so!"

He blinked rapidly, then looked over at Takuya. "But that's how it should work. Everything makes sense that way."

Takuya looked up at him from under his hair, and for the first time, the light that had built up around Kouji flickered. He blinked again, his eyes fading back to blue. "T- that's how it works, right, Takuya? We care about each other more than anything, so –" The light flickered again. "So you'll come with me and do what's best for you, won't you?"

"What's best for me?"

"We're going back to Sorcerymon, and he'll heal the broken data that's making you turn into Flamon. He'll take all the digimon out of you if he has to. Once you're human again, you have to come back to the real world, and we'll be together," he said, and extended one hand in offering. "That's how it should be."

"Not if that's what you think is best for me," he said. "Kouji, I've told you before: I can't just go back and pretend like this place isn't a part of me."

"But we can get rid of it!"

"I don't want to!" he snapped. "Dammit, Kouji, you can hit me again and it still won't make a difference! I _like_ who I am! And if you don't, well, then, we've had this big conversation for nothing because clearly you don't care about me as much as you thought."

"I… Takuya, I…"

"What?" he demanded, then flinched as Kouji suddenly dropped to his knees, the light flaring once before suddenly dying.

"I…" He clapped a hand over his mouth, and fell forward, only caught from smashing into the ground by his other hand. For a moment, nobody moved, just watching him, until Kouichi suddenly rushed over to grab his shoulders and pull him up.

"Kouji, are you… oh, jeez, come on, breathe…"

He silently shook his head, eyes wide as a blush spread across his cheeks. Kouichi pulled him into his chest and peered at him nervously. "Kouji…? Kouji, are you okay now?"

"He's fine. Just coming down from whatever turned him into a supernova," Junpei muttered. "He and Takuya always get bigger reactions out of this world than the rest of us."

"How can you sound jealous about that?" Izumi snapped back. "He was just possessed! Like Tomoki!"

He turned his head further away, while Takuya stepped forward. "I think he's right though. Are you okay now, Kouji?"

He stiffened, then raised his head, but stopped just short of Takuya's collarbone and hunched further in on himself.

"Let me rephrase the question," he said coolly. "Can you walk? We need to get back to Seraphimon's castle. Hiisutori owes me answers."

"Takuya…" Tomoki murmured incredulously, but he went ignored as they continued watching Kouji.

After a few moments, Kouichi sighed and looked up. "I… I don't think we should head back just yet, Takuya, Kouji seems –" He cut off as Kouji suddenly stood up, his head still down and face beet red. His eyes flickered for a moment, before he suddenly turned and started running for the exit.

Kouichi groaned and hurried after him, while Izumi and Takuya exchanged glances. He hesitated, then grimaced. "C'mon, then."

"Yeah," she murmured, but kept her head bowed as they moved past Junpei and then Tomoki.

They passed through the door, and for a moment, Tomoki was left alone to stare at Junpei's dark expression. "J-Junpei… san?" he stammered. "Are you… I mean, should we… I mean…"

"Let's go," he said, and abruptly started walking after the others. "It's nothing new and we've still got work to do."

* * *

><p>In the last fifteen years, Katsuya Jounouchi was proud to say he'd been through a hell of a lot of changes. He went from a self-confessed punk, set to become a drunken labourer at best, to a world famous professional with a strong group of great friends. Yes, he was a professional gambler, but he never cheated and he only ever played for money, which was more than a lot of people could say.<p>

But he still hated to admit there were things in the world that scared him.

The sight of Yami turning to him with wide eyes and mild panic was one of them.

"What?" Mai asked, looking between the two men and then over at the small group of adorable monsters that were their few remaining opponents. "Why are we stopping?"

"We can't win this," Yami said quietly. "We're on the defensive and _I don't have any more cards_."

"What?" she repeated, then pointed at his Duel Disk. There were still a good five or six in his deck. "You're fine!"

"They're junk! Small fry," he hissed. "And I'm out of magic and trap cards."

Jounouchi licked his lips, then looked back at the monsters. There had been a whole legion of them earlier, and they thought they'd been winning, but these few that remained were… Right now, Silent Swordsman was bearing down on them with at least twenty-eight hundred attack points, and a Flame Sorcerer was smirking as she juggled fireballs, ready to burn one of them directly at the first sign of trouble, the spell book she had stolen from Black Magician Girl floating by her side. Backing them up were all three Gadgets, a Susano, and the Marsh Melon that Jounouchi was really learning to hate with a vengeance. On the edges, but clearly ready to jump in at a moment's notice was an Asura and Otohime, and Yami seemed to think more were watching.

On their side, Yami had lost Black Magician Girl, and been forced to sacrifice the Black Magician for the Magician of Black Chaos, who was now leading the charge with Mai's armoured Harpies and Jounouchi's own Flame Swordsman. They had been backed up with Swift Gaia, the Black Knight, but he had been forced into wearing a pair of Marsh Malon glasses and so had been all but rendered useless.

They couldn't win this. They thought they'd been doing fine, if slightly overwhelmed, but…

"We need to meet up with the others," Yami said firmly. "I can take out that Swordsman, but if we want to actually win this, I need aibou."

"And we can reshuffle and fight again once we leave this fight," Jounouchi agreed. "And we can find out what's going on with the kids. I thought they were beating these guys back."

"We'll find out later. In the meantime, we need to lose these guys," said Yami, and Mai tsked, yanking a card from her hand.

"Pair of cowards!" she cried, but the card she slapped down offered her agreement. "_Harpy Lady Scarlet Phoenix Formation_!"

At her call, her three harpies leapt up into the air, and then spun around, sweeping their wings out and causing a whirlwind of feathers that made all of their opponents gasp and fall back a few steps out of shock. She swept her arm in much the same movement at the men. "Let's go!"

"Right!"

Yami yanked Gaia's card from his Disk, and they turned and started running, their Duel Monsters gliding after them. After a few moments, they saw Mai's car and she began fumbling in her pocket for her keys, but just as she yanked them out, something small and fast rocketed past her, and she dropped them with a shout as Jounouchi and Yami fell back as well.

They landed safe, but the attack came shooting back again, and this time Yami couldn't dodge. It hit his chest hard, and he grunted as he was shoved into the pavement, before the attack stopped and flitted away. He groaned as he rolled back to sitting, and they all stared at the creature now hovering in front of them.

It was a little white rabbit, clutching what looked like a combination between a rocket and some kind of pillar.

"Inaba white rabbit," Mai murmured, clambering back to her feet. "Seven hundred attack, five hundred defence. Can attack your life points directly and returns to your opponent's hand at the end phase."

"Bastard," Yami ground out, rubbing his chest. "I hate spirit cards."

"Where the hell are these things coming from?" Jounouchi demanded. "We were winning! The kids were destroying the viruses and we were beating what remained! What the hell happened?"

"I don't – look out!" Yami cut off in a shout and tackled Jounouchi back to the ground, and Mai had to twist fast to avoid the Inaba rabbit's second attack.

"You little…!" she swore and threw out her arm, calling on her harpies. "Destroy that pest!"

No sooner had they than did a sudden shadow spread over them, and they all blinked, staring at each other. "What is…"

"Oh, crap," Jounouchi murmured, and Yami and Mai looked at him, then followed his gaze up to the sky. What had been bright blue sky, covered only by a few, innocent-looking clouds, was now dark black, with threatening lightning cracking across heavy clouds. Then, as they watched, something cracked through the darkness – a small red ball that began growing larger, with more close behind.

"Th- that…" Mai stammered, and Yami leapt back to his feet, snatching Jounouchi up as well.

"Meteors! I think this is Deepest Impact!" he yelled. "Everyone, move!"

"What? That's impossible, I've never even seen it!" she cried, even as Jounouchi shoved her toward the car.

"Who cares? Move before it reaches us!"

They scrambled into her car, and Yami hadn't even slammed his door shut behind himself before Mai took off, just before the first meteor crashed into the ground, only metres from where they'd been. The shockwave jolted them hard, but Mai only pushed the accelerator down harder and kept going.

"What the hell is Deepest Impact?" she demanded of Jounouchi. "I heard it was one of the illegal cards made as a game breaker for Pegasus, after Duellist Kingdom!"

"It never even made it that far," he corrected. "It clears the field of Monster cards and halves both players' life points. It's a hack – only available in computer tournaments and never legally. They mostly use it for show."

"I've only ever seen it in game once," Yami said, his eyes wide as he watched the meteors chase them. They weren't just clearing the board – they were aiming for their car. "But… no, it's impossible."

"I don't even remember," Jounouchi muttered, shoving a hand back through his hair. "It was so long ago. I think it was against Kaiba… or maybe he played it?"

"It was Noah," he said quietly. "The computer program – Noah Kaiba."

"Noah…?"

"Kaiba?" Mai repeated. "One of Kaiba's A.I.s?"

Yami just shook his head, and Jounouchi scrubbed at his hair, trying to remember.

"Kinda… sorta… not at all. But that's impossible! His programming was blown up along with everything on that island!"

"I know that!" Yami snapped. "It's probably just because this is a computer malfunction and any Duel Card is possible right now!"

"So why do you look like Yuugi after he's realised someone destroyed his last puzzle piece?" Mai demanded, glaring at the rear-view mirror, before she had to swerve to avoid another meteor and went back to glaring at the road instead.

"Because aibou warned me this might happen," he murmured, watching the sky fall.

* * *

><p>Although a few gotsumon reared their heads on the way out of the plain, it didn't even take a clear look at any of the Chosen Children's faces for them to know better than to even try accosting them. Which, in its own way, was unfortunate, since it probably would have gone a long way to calming a few of them down.<p>

They walked in silence, Takuya leading the way with Kouji and Kouichi trailing at the back, until they hit the tree line. Takuya stared at it for a long few seconds, then glanced back at the others before huffing and leaping up to the first branch he saw. He wasn't actually leaving them, and him not being in Kouji's line of sight could only help matters.

He sighed as he climbed higher through the trees, and paused on the highest branch he would actually be able to stand on, closing his eyes and losing himself in the wind gently pushing past him. It told him stories. There was rain to the south, and it would reach this place in three days. Soft, lazy rain that made human-types want to stay indoors, and beast-types curl up in their burrows. He leaned back against the tree, curling his claws into the bark and listening to the sound of the earth moving below.

It was one of the abilities he'd gotten after really connecting with Agunimon. One that the others didn't seem aware of, if they even had it. Being so attuned with nature as to actually hear what it had to say… what was coming… what had been…

Back home, he thought he'd lost it, until he started realising he'd always know when rain was coming, or if Shinya should wear layers he could strip off in the heat. Not that Takuya ever got too hot, but his little brother could always use the forewarning.

In this world, though, it was different. Here, he could actually tell what the rain would be, and where it was now. The trees whispered in the wind, and the earth was always moving, always pulsing with data about everything the world had to offer. Here, everything was connected, with energy running through it, like the fire Agunimon had once had deep in his soul.

Agunimon.

He opened his eyes, frowning at the leaves in front of him. Agunimon had said that if they came to this world, their transformations would halt. They wouldn't act like animals anymore, or turn into digimon. But back there, Kouji… he'd shone so bright it had almost hurt to look at him. If that hadn't been Kouji turning into a spirit of light, Takuya didn't know what would. And the others… Izumi and Kouichi… he couldn't actually remember them fighting, but he knew, somehow, that they had been. And in that fight with Arogansu, Junpei…

Not to mention all these powers. Powers came from digimon – not humans. He looked down at his palm, then clenched it shut. They were still turning into digimon, just in different ways. Tomoki was the only safe one, so far, but even he'd nearly lost it, back at Breeze, and in the Gotsumon's temple, Takuya had heard his spirit crying… He could still hear it hurting, even now. If it got worse, then he could end up like Kouji, or…

So, did – did that mean Agunimon had lied to him?

Takuya abruptly shoved himself off the branch, leaping to one on the next tree, several metres below. He swung around it, then used it to push off and bound from the next trunk onto another branch, higher again. He crouched there for a moment, frowning.

Why would he lie? What was the point? Takuya was here, and even if he had tried to tell the others not to come out of concern for their safety—which he had, come to think of it—they would have told him to get bent.

So, what? Agunimon had just lied to him because he could? To make him trust this world, or something? To let his guard down, so when he appeared in the Flame Terminal, those digimon could –

He cut himself off there, shaking his head hard before jumping through the next few trees, as if the movement would get him away from the thought. No. No, that couldn't be it. For one thing, he probably would have trusted them anyway.

Maybe it wasn't that Agunimon had lied, so much as he'd been wrong. He paused on another branch, resting his elbows on his knees as he considered. Either way, now Takuya thought about it, they all seemed to get much worse, digimon-wise, after dealing with haato. They got into fights and said stupid things every time they destroyed one of them.

He closed his eyes, going back to what he'd been thinking through on the Angler Trailmon. Haato meant heart. And the haato seemed to affect their emotions – their hearts. They got angrier when the haato were around; less in control of themselves. And sometimes, the haato completely messed them up, like Tomoki after absorbing Dependensu, or Kouji with Labu. Though he'd already been messed up because of that dream...

He opened his eyes again, sighing quietly. He didn't know how he felt about Kouji liking him that way. It was weird, but… not altogether surprising. Which was also weird. It wasn't every day someone said they liked him like that, let alone his best friend and partner. He was pretty sure it was supposed to be shocking. Which it was. But in more of a 'you had to do this _now_?' way, when he was pretty sure it should have been a very loud and panicking with lots of expletives sort of way.

Maybe it was just because it was Kouji. Everything was always a little more complicated when it was Kouji.

He scrunched his nose and jumped onto the next tree. "Whatever," he muttered to himself. "It doesn't change the fact that he handled it all like a jerk. Soon as we figure out this haato thing, I'm gonna… do something. And he'll regret it. Yeah."

"That doesn't sound like much of a threat, mino."

"YARGH!" Takuya yelled as something small and brown suddenly dropped down in front of him, and he tumbled off the branch, hitting several more on his way down before finally managing to stop his fall by slamming his claws into the trunk. He cringed for a few seconds, then glanced down to see how far he'd fallen and if the others had noticed. Luckily, he was still about ten metres above the ground and they hadn't caught up yet. He sighed in relief and then scowled back up, where the little digimon was still staring at him blankly. "You little…"

Another one of them dropped down to his left, and he glared at it, too. He knew what they were. Minomon were one of those weird sort of digimon that looked like they halfway between being any sort of thing at all. Just a large green head with expressive ears, tiny little arms, and the rest of them were just brown seed sacks, like pine cones. There was also an extendable cord attached to their heads that could connect to whatever was above them, but sometimes they just seemed to be floating in midair. Takuya had never been too fond of them – they often aligned with evil and just generally creeped him out.

"You shouldn't make threats if you don't mean to follow through, mino," Minomon told him bluntly. "What are you going to do, mino?"

"I don't know. And what's it matter to you, anyway?" he asked, and then flipped off the tree to land on the branch of another. Unfortunately, another Minomon dropped down in front of him, and he grimaced. "Are you guys following me, or something?"

"This is our forest, mino," they said in chorus, and he sighed.

"Sorry, sorry… we're just passing through. Excuse me," he said, and jumped onward, but they followed.

"You're kind of weird looking, mino," one said, swinging along beside him as he lunged for a lower branch. "Who are you, mino?"

"My name's Flamon. Or Takuya. Whichever," he added absently. "There aren't many of me around."

"Takuya, mino? Like the legendary warrior, mino?"

He flipped around a branch to drop to another, but they still followed. He rolled his eyes but nodded anyway. "Yeah."

"Are you going to burn down our forest, mino?"

"No!" he cried, and turned to face them. "Look, the spirits only did that because they were corrupted! I think they did that as they were turning into the haato, or something."

"The haato don't exist, mino."

"You're not very bright if you believe in them, mino," another minomon said, and they all nodded wisely.

He scowled again. "Whatever. The point is, we came back to stop anything like that from happening again. Besides, do I look like I could burn anything right now?"

They eyed his wounds, and he frowned, suddenly remembering that these little guys had been teamed up with a bunch of slave-drivers. He was feeling a lot better than he had a couple of hours ago, back at the temple, but he doubted he could even take these guys on if they worked together.

But in the end, they just threw up their tiny arms, closed their eyes and sighed dramatically. "He looks so weak, mino!"

"Hey!"

One opened its eyes and looked at him again. "So, mino? What are you here for then, mino?"

"Like I said, we're just passing through. We're trying to get back to the Forest Terminal."

"We, mino?"

"Yeah, me and my friends," he said, pointing down as the others came into view. Junpei and Tomoki had moved up front, with Kouji trailing at the back.

"Humans, mino!"

"Well, duh," Takuya replied, glancing at them in surprise. "You know we're the legendary warriors. What do you expect?"

"We could steal their data, mino!" one cried. "That way we'll evolve, mino!"

Takuya raised an eyebrow, then rolled his eyes and flicked the offending minomon into the nearest tree. "Or you could not, that works too."

"We could steal their clothes, mino!" another one suggested. "Human clothing is still from the human world, mino! Very valuable, mino!"

"For the love of…" Takuya rolled his eyes again and jumped to the next tree, but still paused there to watch his friends. Kouichi was still walking in the middle, his eyes focussed on nothing in particular, but Izumi had dropped back to walk beside Kouji, who didn't seem to notice. He was trailing along, hands in his pockets and eyes on his feet. Takuya frowned and braced himself against the tree, ignoring the Minomon as they dropped around him.

"You don't look very human, mino."

"You have a tail, mino!"

"It's a weird tail, mino."

"You're a weird digimon, mino."

"Shut up, mino," he said irritably, and they stared at him, then huddled together to whisper. He ignored them, focussed on the fact that Izumi was quietly speaking to Kouji, who looked up at her with a start, confirming Takuya's thought that he hadn't realised she was there. Takuya crouched down as far as he could, wishing his hearing was better as he waited for them to come in range.

"—can't expect everything to get better," Kouji was murmuring. "I screwed everything up."

"It wasn't you. And besides, nothing's happened that can't be fixed," she whispered back. "And you were right. We should have told everyone long ago. Junpei especially. He needed to hear it."

"Are you a bird-type, mino?" one of the Minomon asked, making Takuya flinch.

"What? No, shut up," he said, and hurried to the next tree in the hope he could catch more of their conversation.

The digimon followed, another Minomon chastising the first. "There's no wings, mino. It's a human-type, mino."

"But it's so comfortable in the trees, mino. Human-types like the ground, mino."

Takuya tried to ignore them as Kouji turned to stare at Izumi incredulously.

"Don't be so pessimistic," she said quietly. "If it's real love, the worst that can happen is that it will become a deep and abiding affection, rather than romance. And sure, he might get mad and not want to see me for days, weeks, or even months, but eventually… eventually… love will bring him back. And we can be friends."

Kouji frowned. "That's cruel, to keep him hanging."

"And it's easy on me, knowing that? Caring about him? I want him to be happy, Kouji."

"He would be happy with you."

"Even if I don't love him like that?"

"You did it with Takuya."

"Don't compare that with this, it's totally different!" she cried, then flinched, and Takuya looked around to see Kouichi peer over his shoulder, distracted by the noise. She lowered her voice again, and Takuya swore under his breath, leaping through the trees to try and keep up with the quiet conversation.

"The claws look like a dragon-type, mino," a Minomon announced, and Takuya had to jump fast to avoid tripping over it in mid-air. "The teeth, too, mino."

"You can barely see my teeth!" he cried, then slapped a hand over his mouth and groaned. "Will you guys go away?"

"It's our forest, mino," they reminded him. He bounded off a trunk and leapt for another branch, straining to catch up with Izumi and Kouji.

"—when we were kids. That story about your mother. How she wasn't your biological mother, and she'd never replace the one you'd never known, but you still wanted to make her happy. It was awkward, and hard, but you decided you were going to give her those flowers, and call her 'mum', and you would do anything to make sure that happened."

Kouji looked away, and Izumi threaded her arm through his. "That story taught me a lot. I always used to think love would be easy. That finding someone and falling in love was the hard part. Like, once you knew how you felt, everything else would be simple. But it's not. The falling and the feeling is easy. Dealing with what that means is hard." She curled her other hand around his elbow, peering up into his eyes. "Takuya does love you, Kouji, in the same way I love Junpei. We want to be with you, just… just not like that. You understand?"

Takuya leaned over his branch, his eyes narrow as he waited for the answer, then blanched as a Minomon dropped down in front of his face again.

"Definitely a dragon-type, mino. Look at these markings, mino!"

He clenched his teeth and flung out his arms, scattering the minomon. "Go annoy someone else, dammit! I'm not any type! I'm just Flamon! Just Takuya!" he cried. "Not everything has to fit into categories!"

"Yes it does, mino," one said, swinging past on the momentum from his throw.

"Everyone has a type, mino," another pointed out, swinging the other way. "Otherwise it doesn't make sense, mino."

He grunted, standing up in preparation to jump over them. "Don't be stupid. If everything fit into neat little categories, then nothing would ever change. Everyone would be exactly the same, following the exact same rules, and no one would ever do anything different to anyone else, and it would never, ever ch-"

He stopped, blinking as he realised what he was saying, then immediately crouched down again. "We can change the data. That's what Kaiba-san and the others said. That's what we did the first time, by coming to this world and connecting with it. We changed the data." He narrowed his eyes again, staring at nothing as he tried to catch up with whatever his mind was trying to tell him. "Agunimon said I can access the data more than anyone else, and that's not what was supposed to happen. That's where it went wrong. That's where things stopped fitting into neat categories. Stopped being logical. Stopped making sense."

His eyes flicked back down to Kouji, who was just moving out of sight, all but ignoring the way Izumi was still staring at him expectantly.

"That's what he was ranting about back there. Sense. How it should be according to logic. He thinks I've stopped thinking rationally, and yeah, maybe, but… but Kouji's started thinking too rationally," he realised. "What did Agunimon say? Everything that happens to the digital world will happen to me, and happen to me first. Okay, but then why isn't Kouji going the same way I am? Why are we going in opposite directions…?"

"Because you're wrong, mino," Minomon told him, swinging back into his line of sight and staying there, this time. "You're not the same, mino."

"You're not like any of them, mino," another agreed, and he flinched around to stare at it. "You're a digimon, mino. They're human, mino."

"I – I am a human," he stammered, suddenly flashing back to Agumon and Torasuto. He shook his head hard, clearing his vision. "I j-just connected with this world more than they did. That's the only reason I'm different."

"What makes a human, mino?" they asked in chorus, before one swung forward to get in his face. "You don't _look_ human, mino."

"You're wrong!" he cried, then jumped up and over them, rushing through the branches to catch up to the others. This time, the minomon didn't follow, and he allowed himself to slow down once he'd caught up with Junpei. He peered down at his older friend, noting how tired he looked. All his friends looked tired. He sniffed at the air, frowning as he tried to work out how long it was until sunset. They could make camp in about an hour.

Then he realised what he was doing and groaned, shoving a hand back through his hair. "Way to prove a point, Takuya," he muttered, but then just sighed and crouched over his knees, thinking.

He didn't believe them, of course. Looking like a digimon didn't make him any less human. He was both, and he loved that.

But they had asked an interesting question. Since it wasn't what a person looked like that made them human—he was sure of that—it begged the question…

What did?

* * *

><p>[<em>Program error… Reboot required…<em>]


	23. Rejection

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Two

_**Rejection.**_

**TRUFAX**: As Yuugi, Yami and Anzu all knew very well, there is a difference between being unwanted, feeling unwanted, and not wanting something. Our dear chosen children never seemed to work that out…

* * *

><p>"Hey, Tomoki?"<p>

He started, looking up from his shoes. Flamon smiled and pointed at him with a log he'd just set on fire. "D'you think you could go find us some food?"

"R-right. Sure," he said, and paused before scrambling to his feet and away. He slipped behind a tree when he noticed Junpei moving over to the fire, and leaned back to listen.

"He's been acting pretty shook up," Junpei said quietly. A peace offering, Tomoki realised. "Think he'll be okay?"

"As much as the rest of us. How you doin', Junpei?"

There was a long pause, before he laughed. "Really crappy, actually. Thanks for asking."

Takuya joined in the laughter, and Tomoki sighed before pushing off the tree and walking away. He didn't understand them.

He could see Kouji, leaning back against a tree and pointedly ignoring Izumi standing in front of him, talking quietly at a mile a minute. He looked like Tomoki felt – like Tomoki thought they should all be feeling right now.

How had everything gotten so screwed up?

When he'd woken up that morning, he knew how things were supposed to be. Sure, things were a little messed up and scary, with Takuya turning into a digimon and the rest of them kinda losing it too… and yeah, he'd still been dealing with what he'd done the first time he turned into Chakmon again…

He stared at his hand, then shook his head and hurried onward.

But even with all that, he'd known they'd be fine. Takuya would find some way to rescue Kouji, and they'd work together to save the digital world again. Meanwhile, the rest of them would figure out what was going on with them turning into digimon, and they'd save Takuya.

In the back of his mind, he'd also figured that doing all this would remind Izumi of how important Junpei was to her, and when they all went back home, she would dump her boyfriend and start dating Junpei. And, because he was a romantic at heart, he figured the others would get girlfriends too, and they'd all grow up and live happily ever after.

But now, clearly, none of that was going to happen.

Now, it turned out Takuya was the mystery boyfriend, he didn't love anyone but himself, and everyone loved him because they were all idiots, and he had them all fooled into thinking he was perfect.

Tomoki huffed, looking up and around for some kind of food. All the time they'd been walking, all he could think about was how Takuya had screwed everything up. How he must have changed somewhere along the line.

For a while, he'd blamed Vrytramon, because it was easy. All the beast spirits had been violent, except Shutsmon and KaiserLeomon, but that had more to do with Izumi and Kouichi than their spirits. But where Garmamon and Borgomon had been out of control, and Blizzardmon was simply reckless, Vrytramon had been actively destructive, and angry. He could have burned down the world and all any of them could have done was watched.

Maybe that should have been foreshadowing, he thought cruelly, as he noticed a meal-cabbage bush. Maybe even back then, he should have known Takuya would ruin everything.

But that wasn't fair, he reminded himself with a sigh. Nor did it really make a lot of sense. Yes, Vrytramon had been destructive, but more than anything, he'd been _angry_. He'd heard Takuya telling Kouji about it, on one of those quiet nights when they were on the run from the Royal Knights. Vrytramon hadn't been evil, so much as scared and angry, and lashing out was the only way he could protect himself.

That fit with what Flamon was like, when he first transformed, back in the human world. So that made sense. But this… the rest of it… maybe Vrytramon helped things along, but he wasn't to blame for everything. If he was, then Izumi would have been in a lot of trouble, and that just went down a dark path Tomoki never wanted to think about any of his friends going near. No. No, Vrytramon wasn't to blame. Takuya could have stopped himself, or at least asked for help.

He paused with one meal-cabbage in hand, just staring at nothing.

Yeah, he could have asked for help, but when Tomoki thought about it, it sounded strange even in his own head. 'So, guys, Izumi and I have been hooking up all over the place – could you give us a hand in resisting our hormonal urges?'

But, strange or not, he _could_ have asked. He could have told them. He could have… he could have picked somebody that wasn't Izumi! Someone who didn't matter. Some stupid girl he didn't really know—that none of them cared about—who he could have just…!

Tomoki sighed again, and turned over the meal-cabbage he'd been squeezing the life out of. Basically ruined. He tossed it into the woods and picked another.

No, Takuya couldn't have picked some other girl, because that wasn't the type of guy he was. He didn't use people so carelessly – couldn't toss people aside like they didn't matter. Of course, up until today, Tomoki never could have believed Takuya could use Izumi like that. Even if she was using him, too, it was still…

It was much colder than he expected his perfect big brother—the great and truly legendary Warrior of Fire—to be.

That was the word. Cold. He ground the heel of his palm into his eye, then rested his elbow on a cabbage and frowned at the bush. He wanted to just blame it on Takuya, but, at the same time…

When Dependensu had been absorbed, Tomoki had almost… Back in Breeze, he hadn't been thinking straight. He hadn't really been thinking at all. All there had been was snow, covering his head and heart. At first, he'd just been destroying the creature that wanted to destroy him. That was all it had been about. But then… then it wasn't even about that. He'd just been exacting revenge on bullies, because that was what Chakmon—what he, Tomoki—did. It wasn't about personal satisfaction, or protecting someone, or… anything, it was just… what he was supposed to do. A cold-blooded directive from the Hero of Justice.

And today, Kouji…

"_That's logical_."

He'd spoken so flatly, his face completely blank. He was just as cold as Tomoki had been against him, back at Breeze. Just with different motivations.

It was a little harder to hate Takuya for what he'd done with Izumi when he thought about that.

He shook his head firmly, clinging to his anger like a lifeline. They'd broken through to Kouji, just like the others had broken through to him at Breeze. If either one of them had just _said_ something…!

And broken Junpei's heart…

He tossed away the cabbage he was resting on and went back to glaring at the bush. There had to be some solution he just wasn't seeing. There _had_ to be. Something Takuya could have done – should have thought of.

Because even when Tomoki couldn't think of anything, Takuya could.

Tomoki considered that double standard for a few seconds, then scrunched up his nose and went back to picking cabbages.

* * *

><p>The night was warm, almost humid, and they let the fire die down to embers that Takuya alone curled up close to, while the others stayed at least a metre away from it and each other.<p>

Kouji was sitting up against a tree, supposedly on watch, though his eyes remained fixed on Takuya's back. He was still Flamon, but Kouji couldn't help but think there was something different about him now. His shoulders were broader, his body given more shape. His hands, which Kouji had watched pull apart a cabbage with slow and agonising thought, were longer. More human-like.

Or maybe it was just in his imagination, he reminded himself, watching smoke from the embers waft up and around Takuya before floating toward him. Wishful thinking, maybe, as if Takuya could be different… as if he could be less than he had been. As if he could still need him. Need him like Kouji needed Takuya.

Now he thought about it, their partnership had never been what you could call equal. Not really. Takuya gave, taught and fought for others, but what would he ever accept in return? When did he ever rely on Kouji for anything? In battle? Yeah, right. The only time Takuya ever took his help was in Susanoomon, and look how that turned out.

He huffed into the smoke, and then smiled sadly as it promptly began reforming around him. It was curling around him, surrounding him and getting under his clothes... just like Takuya had forced his way into Kouji's life and under his skin. It wasn't really fair... The few time Kouji had tried to repay him-tried to protect him or make him see sense-he'd either screwed it up or just let Takuya shrug him off.

Because Takuya didn't need anyone's help. Didn't need anyone. Didn't need Kouji.

And now—_now_—Kouji had really done it. He'd been so confused by that light in his spirit, and by whatever was happening to them, that he'd really screwed it up. Now, a little voice whispered, there was no way Takuya would ever rely on him. No way Takuya would trust him.

No way Takuya could ever want or need him.

He pulled in a slow breath that burned with smoke and looked up at the sky, just visible through the trees. Things only got worse the more he thought about them. Even if he could ignore Takuya-_ha!_-how could the others ever trust him again? He'd betrayed all of them, today. His emotionless tirade had broken Junpei's heart, betrayed Izumi, and let the others see him ignore everyone's feelings to do what just made sense to some messed up image he'd had in his head.

They all had to be hating him right now.

He abruptly stood up, swaying a little from how light the smoke had made his head. But he quickly recovered and turned, stepping around the trees and out of the clearing, away from the camp.

* * *

><p>Takuya had been half-asleep, watching the embers burn, when he heard Kouji get up and leave. He considered stopping him, or at least going after him, but heard Kouichi sigh and get up before he could make up his mind. As he listened to the twins disappear into the forest, he decided he really couldn't be bothered anymore.<p>

It was just typical Kouji. Running off on his own, rather than open up and talk to his friends. And Takuya could already tell, just like always, he was going to end up inspiring the others to chase Kouji down, and they'd find him, and Kouji would get mad, and Takuya would react, and they'd end up fighting, and everyone would get upset and…

No.

Not this time. He rolled over onto his back and glared at the smoke curling in patterns above his head. They were already upset enough, thank you. If Kouji wanted to run off and be emo, that was his problem. Takuya had more important things to worry about.

And besides, it wasn't like Takuya would be able to do much for him right now anyway. This time, Takuya was a major part of Kouji's problem. And it wasn't like he could just…

Actually, that was... kinda scary. He didn't know if Kouji would accept that he couldn't… It was stupid, but now Takuya couldn't help worrying that all their friendship had ever been was just… Takuya wanting friends, and Kouji wanting… more? _Could_ they be friends now? Most of the kids he knew at school ended up hating the people they had unrequited love for. Did Kouji hate him now? Was that it?

And – and what about Kouji's question? Had Takuya unconsciously answered it now? _Could_ they trust each on the battlefield with this thing between them?

And if Kouji didn't trust him… after so many years of being partners… what would the others think?

He wasn't worried about the haato – it didn't matter if no one trusted him or fought beside him. He would still protect his friends and save everything. It was more…

Junpei had already as good as told him they weren't friends now. And all day, he'd been feeling Tomoki's anger radiating like dry ice. He might still have Izumi, but she'd always take Kouji's strategy over his dumb luck.

He twitched, then rolled back onto his side, lifting a hand to drag his claws through the smoke. He'd never had claws before today. He tried to focus on them; think about what they meant. Minomon's point about humanity and everything. But all he could think was…

Well, let them. Let them make their choices. Let them choose Kouji if they wanted. He'd still fight for them. He'd still save them all.

He wouldn't ask anything of them. Couldn't ask them to follow him.

He'd already picked his side – the Digital World needed him. Now it was up to his friends what side they wanted.

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of silence, with Kaiba messing around on his laptop and Yuugi staring at him, waiting for a reason to be there, Yuugi surrendered to the inevitable and decided it just wasn't going to happen. He stood up, moving around the desk to perch on the arm of Kaiba's chair and see what he was doing.<p>

It didn't help much.

To Yuugi's eyes, it looked like Kaiba was moving a bunch of algebra and other equally incomprehensible symbols across a notepad document and expecting it to look different each time. Yuugi glanced at his former rival, boss and friend, then back at the screen.

"I don't understand," he confessed, and Kaiba hummed in his throat, leaning back in his chair.

"This is a copy of the currently-invisible fox-child's data. What he looks like in computer programming terms," he said. "As I said earlier, it's a mess."

Yuugi just blinked and waited for the punch line.

"I thought it was because the data was, due to Yami's… influence—" Yuugi mentally autocorrected that to 'magic'. "—naturally incomprehensible. But by comparing it to the other children, I have since found that is not the case. There is a full, if impossible, creature in this data. It is not human, nor is it a monster, but I can see what it is supposed to be."

"Well… yeah," Yuugi said blankly. "He said he was half-digimon. That's going to be non-human, right?"

"But that isn't the problem, he said. "The problem is that not only is the data incorrectly arranged, with most of the comprehension data toward the end of the function, rather than the start and centre, it's also become corrupted."

Yuugi continued staring at him, not following, for almost a minute, before he gave up and just tried to filter it into something he could understand. "He's back to front and broken?" he asked, then tilted his head. "Again, I think we knew that already. His friends said he hadn't been thinking properly for years. That's why they were going to the other world, right? To fix him. And he was broken—they were all broken—because of the haato-virus things. The viruses were affecting their thoughts."

"And, originally, the plan was that they would destroy the viruses to fix the problem," Kaiba added, before raising an eyebrow. "A flawed plan, at best. Despite my better judgement, I was hoping your influence would overcome logic. However, this programming proves it hasn't."

"Huh?"

He laced his fingers and sat back in his chair, meeting Yuugi's gaze directly. "Computers are not people," he said bluntly. "Once they become corrupted, you can't fix them with some psycho-analysis and the power of friendship, or whatever it is you think you do. All you can do is delete the corrupted programming and rewrite it."

"But these kids aren't computers – they just have some kind of connection to the computer data," Yuugi said quickly. "And this world they're in isn't a real computer – it can be changed. They said they can purify things. Rewrite them while they still exist, I guess."

"I thought, given the impossible things you do on a regular basis, that might be the case," he said, and then loosened one hand from the other to open another file, this one like the one Mokuba was monitoring. "But while they have done things that aren't possible in computer terms, they certainly aren't doing that. They've deleted the attacking virus points, to the point that there are only three left, and only two of them are active. But the virus has done its work. Files have been irreparably corrupted, and unless these children begin showing some…" He grimaced, obviously loathe to say it. "Some kind of 'purification', as you put it, those files will have to be deleted in order to cleanse the system."

"Is that financially viable for you?" he asked shrewdly. "You're talking about the base Duel Monster holographic system. It could be offline for months while you rebuild. Your academy would be reduced to standardised schooling. Even your theme parks would be down."

"It would be a single week at most," he corrected. "I know my system, and I have back-ups. I haven't already wiped the system and rebuilt it out of consideration for the children, not my finances."

Yuugi blinked, then smiled and touched Kaiba's shoulder. It had been years since Kaiba had changed his ways and begun doing these nice things without prompting, but they were still surprising, and still made Yuugi proud of how far his friend had come.

Still, he pulled away before Kaiba could raise his eyebrow and stood up, folding one arm over his torso and touching his chin with the other. "Okay, so… why are you suddenly saying we don't have time? If there're only two active virus points left—"

"One of which they are currently dealing with, and the other… is on course to intercept," he interjected with a quick glance at his data feed.

"—that means the kids have basically stopped the corruption. If we can finish our work out here, doesn't that mean they've basically saved the day?" he asked. "We get rid of the Duel Monsters in the real world, and they said the viruses were basically what was causing problems in their world, so everything should be okay after that."

"You skipped over the important point," he said. "The viruses are causing problems in them. The children themselves."

Yuugi blinked again, his hand dropping to his arm. "Yes…"

"They've become corrupted by the viruses. That's why their data is such a mess, even when I rearrange it into the correct order, and take into account that they aren't human," he said, switching back to the notepad document. "Their data has become irreparably damaged. They have become part of the trojan."

"What?"

"When Yami called you earlier, he said the Light monsters were getting stronger. Honda reported that his unit have been called back out to the streets. This is not a coincidence."

"There are less monsters out there!" he cried, pointing to the window. "We're winning!"

"Less monsters, but are they the same level as they were?" he asked. "Think about this, Mutou. _Yami_ was having trouble today, when two days ago he was facing an army of Duel Monsters and getting bored."

Yuugi stared at him for a second, then looked to the computer screen. "Flamon-san and the others –"

"Are damaged, and if allowed to continue in that world after they finish with the viruses, will continue to damage it. And if they are allowed to remain as they are, connected to the Digital World, they may infect other computer systems, because their world is linked to my system and I am linked to everything," he said coldly. "Their way isn't working. We need to find another way."

"Another…" Yuugi glanced at the computer screen again, then back at Kaiba. "What? Are you going to delete the whole Digital World? How? You said you can't even change this data."

"It's _data_. Electronic systems," he said. "A high charge of electricity or a magnet should do it."

"The kids won't go for it," he argued. "You heard Flamon-san, they think of that place as their second home."

"That's not my concern."

"Look, Seto, you can't just –"

"What else would you have me do, Yuugi?" he demanded, and Yuugi stopped, surprised by the use of his given name. Kaiba frowned, relacing his fingers. "This is not just their fictional world, or even their lives and sanity on the line. This is data. Every single aspect of the modern world relies on electronic data. Even remove you and your influence from the equation, they can still corrupt and ruin every computer connected to the internet. Every financial institution in the world. Every bank account. Every census. Every government system. Think of how badly that could go. Then add your influence, and the fact there are solid monsters walking the streets, and the corruption hasn't honestly reached our world yet."

"But they –"

"They aren't working fast enough, and they are becoming the problem. We need another solution."

* * *

><p>"Twice in like, three days, I can't believe I'm saying this, but…" Kouichi pulled in a breath with a wince and looked at his brother sideways. "Do you want to talk about it?"<p>

"No."

"Are you sure? Because you usually do, and it's normally me trying to get out of talking about it," he pointed out, then blinked. "It's also usually me not talking so much. This role reversal is –"

Kouji spared him a withering glance before focussing on the path in front of him again. They'd been walking for over an hour, but ever since the first slivers of sunlight appeared on the horizon, Kouichi had been on his case.

"Actually, it's reminding me a lot of our first few months back in the Real World…" he observed, and let that sink in for a few minutes before trying again. "Look, let's go back. You and Takuya need to talk, and –"

"He doesn't want to talk to me. The last two times we've talked, I've either hit him or ruined his life," he said bluntly. "He doesn't want to talk to me."

"You didn't ruin his life, and there was a lot going on when you hit him. And clearly, from the thing with Labu, you had a lot more going on than I thought, so can we talk about that, at least?"

"Definitely not," he snapped.

"When did this happen?" he asked, ignoring Kouji's glare with the skill that came from years of watching Takuya do it. "Thing with Izumi aside, you never even _hinted_ that you liked boys, let alone –"

"We're not talking about this," he ground out.

"Is this a new thing? Did you even know?"

"What does it matter if I did?" he cried, spinning to face him. "I've never thought about it, Kouichi – why would I?"

"Because you think about everything! It just seems strange to me that you never once thought about this," he said, and Kouji looked away, but didn't start walking again.

"I didn't think about it because it's complicated, and it shouldn't be. It should all be simple. People care about each other – that's all that matters." His eyes narrowed, his fists clenching by his side. "Izumi should have fallen for Junpei. Their parents should be planning a wedding to put Junpei's dreams to shame. And Izumi should never have said what she did, yesterday."

Kouichi stared at him silently for a few minutes, and Kouji sighed, turning away.

"But it _is_ complicated, and Izumi was right about everything. But I just couldn't see that, and I screwed everything up. For everyone." He walked over to a tree and thumped it with his fist, then looked back at his brother. "I know that, but I still don't understand it. We're human. We belong in the human world. Junpei loves Izumi, and he always will. He should be with the one he wants. Tomoki deserves to be told the truth – he's one of us, he shouldn't be treated differently. Doesn't that all make sense?"

He frowned, tilting his head in concern. "Sense, sure. It's very logical. It's also pretty naive. Humans don't work like that."

"No… I guess they don't," he murmured, and sighed, moving forward again. They walked in silence for a few minutes, until they broke out of the trees, onto a broad cliff edge overlooking a trailmon track below. Kouji folded his arms as he stared down at it, his brow furrowing. "And now I think about it… that might actually be the point."

* * *

><p>For several long seconds, they could only stare blankly, as Flamon stood up and brushed the dirt off his knees.<p>

Eventually though, Junpei had to break the silence. "What do you mean you're not going after them?"

"I mean, I'm going back to the Citadel and getting some answers," he said. "We're on borrowed time here, guys. If we can't find out what's happening to us and stop it…"

"But you always go after Kouji," pointed out Tomoki.

"Yeah, well… not this time. I don't _have_ time," he said, and shifted his weight to the other foot. "You guy are more important."

"Since when?" demanded Izumi. "Look, Takuya, if you're uncomfortable with what happened yesterday –"

"Of course I'm uncomfortable!" he cried. "But that's not what the problem is! We don't have time to waste, what with the haato and us turning into –"

"Which is why we need to stick together!" Tomoki argued. "You're the one who taught us that! We're stronger as a team!"

"But we're _not_ a team right now! We're a group of upset, angry, half-human digimon that just happen to be travelling together," he said, gesturing to the campsite as if that could make his point. "We're not even focussed on the same goal. We're all working toward different things and it shows!"

Izumi and Tomoki immediately began arguing, but Junpei barely heard them. Everything seemed to be going in super-slow motion as he stared at Flamon, letting the words whirl through his mind like the smoke still rising from the covered embers.

Takuya was… actually leaving the twins behind.

Kouichi.

_Kouji_.

If Takuya was leaving Kouji behind, the last person in two worlds that Junpei ever would have thought Takuya could abandon…

…what chance did Junpei have?

And now he was even saying he didn't think any of them were a team anymore.

A small burst of flame erupted as Flamon threw his arm out in point, shooting even more smoke into the air, and Junpei watched it drift toward him, feeling the corner of his mouth lift in a humourless laugh.

This was getting kind of ridiculous.

First Izumi telling him off yesterday, then Kouji and Kouichi leaving… and now Takuya. Everyone was leaving him behind.

Again.

Suddenly, he was twelve years old again, standing on the school steps and watching everyone else walk home together. He huffed out another laugh, blowing a gap in the smoky air. He shouldn't feel so surprised, a little voice whispered. When had he ever been good enough for anyone?

Oh, sure, he could fool himself. Had been fooling himself for five years. But he wasn't anyone's friend. Not really. If he had been, then they would have said something.

But they hadn't. They had just laughed at him behind his back. Izumi and Takuya. He could just see it now. Two perfect people, in the perfect relationship, laughing at silly, fat Junpei. He'd never been good enough for her.

He –

"_Junpei_!"

Something heavy hit his chest and he fell back, gasping down a breath of suddenly clean air only to find himself on his back, Izumi kneeling over him with wide eyes.

"Junpei, are you okay?" she asked, and he blinked. All he could see behind her was smoke. Thick, grey smoke that sure as heck hadn't been there last time he checked.

"Izumi?"

She smiled in relief, but it almost immediately vanished as Flamon shouted, and she looked over her shoulder toward him. Junpei heaved himself up onto his elbows in time to see Flamon slam the palms of his hands together and throw out a wave of fire that only served to create more smoke to join the blanket around them.

"Don't you mess around with me!" he shouted. "Come out and fight, dammit!"

"What…?" Junpei asked, pushing himself further up. "Who is he talking to? Where'd all this smoke come from?"

"We don't know. On either count," Izumi said slowly. "We were arguing, and then I suddenly noticed it was hard to breathe, and we realised we were surrounded by smoke. Then we looked at you, and you weren't answering when we spoke." She paused, looking into his eyes. "Are you okay?"

For a second, the twelve year old in him took point, and wanted to clasp her hands in his, thanking her for her concern and reassuring her that he was just fine. But, he reminded himself coldly, coughing out a mouthful of smoke, the twelve year old in him hadn't had his heart ripped to shreds yesterday. He looked away and stood up without answering.

A few metres away, Flamon was spinning around, releasing bursts of frustrated fire that only caused more smoke, but apparently he didn't notice. He just growled as everything got harder to see. "Where are you? Come out!"

"Is it a haato?" asked Tomoki, from somewhere inside the smoke on the other side of the clearing. "I don't know any digimon that could do this. N-not that I… know that many…"

Junpei frowned. It had been a long time since he'd heard Tomoki sound so nervous and hesitant, especially around them. Flamon apparently agreed, as he leapt up, scattering the smoke for an instant before dragging more fire into his palms.

"Get away from my friends!" he shouted, and a blast of fire rocketed down through the smog, clearing it just long enough for Junpei to see Tomoki shout out and fall back.

"Tomoki! Takuya, you almost fried him!" Izumi yelled, but Junpei had already noticed a bigger problem.

"You did fry the tree he was beside!" he added, as flames began licking up the bark and Tomoki had to scramble away. Flamon spared them a concerned glance as he dropped back to the ground, but smoke quickly enveloped them all, made worse by the burning tree. Flamon immediately cursed and threw out another wave of fire that scattered the smoke but blasted another three trees into flames.

"Takuya, stop! You're just making things worse!" Tomoki shouted, only to cut off in a choke when the smoke reached him. "Takuya!"

"Don't worry, once I fry the haato, everything'll clear up!" he called, as he disappeared behind the fog again. This time, all they saw was the blast of fire before they were covered in another wave of smoke.

"Yeah, but what if you fry us, first?" muttered Junpei. "Not to mention that you're the one causing all the damage…"

"Junpei… I think…" Izumi coughed on the smoke, but when he finally looked at her, she hunched her shoulders, her eyes going hard. "Not that you care what I think."

"I… I could freeze the fire," Tomoki said, and Junpei's head snapped around at his timid voice. He could barely see his youngest friend, but Tomoki still ducked his head to hide his eyes. "But I guess that's probably not good enough."

He stared between them for a second, then over to where he could see the flames. For a second, the smoke was just clear enough for him to catch a glimpse of Flamon's expression.

He didn't look confident. Just determined. _Angry_.

Not himself.

Junpei set his shoulders, clenching his fists by his sides. He could work with that. If Flamon was acting weird…er than normal, Junpei could use it to his advantage. Even people who didn't like you would work with you to triumph over someone they trusted less.

"Come on, Tomoki!" Junpei hissed, shoving his shoulder. "Are you gonna let Flamon go psycho? You're the one who stopped his rampage last time!"

"B-but…" He fell back a step, into the thicker smoke. "That time Takuya wasn't thinking straight. It was the Beast spirit. I can't –"

"Why not?" he demanded, and Tomoki stared at him.

"He – what if he gets mad?" he asked, and his voice lowered even further. "What if he won't talk to me again?"

Junpei frowned – Tomoki was ridiculously loyal to Takuya. He probably couldn't win th-

Luckily, a fireball chose that moment to smash between them, into a tree behind, and they fell apart with identical shouts. For a second, they just gaped, before Junpei clenched his fists again. Thinking on his feet with people was what he was good at.

"It's either that or let him spend the rest of his life guilty over killing us!"

Tomoki flinched, then snatched out his digivice and scanned it. He was covered in data for two seconds, before Chakmon leapt out of the code with his blaster primed to fire.

"I'm sorry, Takuya!" he shouted, then yelled even louder, "_Snow Bomber_!"

The snowballs shot out, scattering the smoke and heading straight for Flamon's shocked face. They hit with a wet crunch, throwing him back a few steps and blasting the smoke back with steam, instead. But Chakmon didn't pause, sucking in a deep breath. "_Kachi-kachi… kochin_!"

"D'yargh!" Takuya was pummelled back even further in a cloud of steaming ice, and both he and Chakmon disappeared behind the curtain of smoke.

That out of the way, Junpei turned to Izumi, and they stared at each other through the smoke with hard eyes. Izumi had broken his heart, and he knew she would never apologise. She had never been his. Had probably never been his friend. She had just put up with him. Maybe that was why she looked so angry now – all those years of bottled up anger…

But right now, he could work with that. It hurt like hell, and he would probably cry over it later, but right now…

"We need to clear the smoke," he said evenly. "Your wind can do that."

"Oh. So you need me now, huh?" she asked, setting a hand on her hip. "Guess I come in handy for a little more than romance."

"What – Izumi, I…" He shook his head. That was another thing he could deal with later. "If we can clear the smoke, we can see what's causing it, and get out."

"I get it. Don't treat me like an idiot," she snapped, but still leapt forward, curling the wind through her hands and up over her head. The smoke whirled around her, dragged up with her hair and coat, and her arms began moving in wider circles, pulling more smoke and air in until she had a huge white ball over her head.

As the wind blew, the fires went higher, and Junpei winced as he had to duck out of the way of the burning tree behind him, but the smoke had thinned enough that he could see the other side of the clearing. Flamon sat against a tree on the far side, sopping wet with Chakmon standing beside him, wringing his paws. Junpei narrowed his eyes and looked back at Izumi. He'd never get Tomoki on his side. Better not to even try.

He'd never get anyone. No one wanted him.

Izumi's ball of smoke had become ridiculously huge, but she continued to hold it up, walking forward until she was in the middle of the clearing, the air a whirlwind around her. She held the smoke for another second, and then flung her arms out, and the air went with them: blasting out in all directions and clearing the forest of both smoke and active fires. Then she stopped, blinked, and looked around at Junpei.

"Wait a second –"

He spun away from her, still scowling as he searched, until he found something that wasn't burnt trees or grass. He had been all geared up and ready to blast it with lightning, but the sight honestly dropped the urge out of him for a moment.

It was a tiny orange dragon, barely bigger than Chakmon, with its bottom legs and tail still sticking out of what looked suspiciously like an egg. As Junpei watched, smoke filtered out of its mouth and began drifting toward them. But that wasn't the weird thing.

The weird thing was the very large, limbed clock standing behind it, holding its leash and clearly controlling it. It had a cape. And a wand. And it was glaring at them.

"Haa…to…?" Izumi asked, pointing at it.

"Rejekushion!" the clock cried, and the dragon made an odd noise that might have been a roar.

"Reje- _you_ made me think those things about Junpei!" she cried, pointing at him. "You made me think everyone hated me again!"

Junpei glanced back at her, but the clock just waved its wand again, and the dragon huffed out another blast of smoke. But Izumi was ready this time: she thrust out both arms and shoved all the remaining smoke back at them.

"How dare you!" she screeched, and lashed out with another whip of air that made the dragon snuffle in surprise. She followed it up with one of her balls of wind, and the clock grumbled as it was pushed back a metre, though it didn't seem too hurt. Izumi growled. "Do you have any idea how long it took for me to believe people liked me? Do you know what it's like to always think you're the outsider and still try to like people? And you just shot me right back there! How _dare_ you?"

She threw out arm after armful of wind, but although it pushed the clock back and made the dragon sneeze on its own smoke, it didn't seem to be hurting either of them much. And given their size, Junpei could see that her physical attacks would be awkward – her foot would go right over the clock's head in a Tornado Gamba, and the fact there were two of them would make it hard for her to focus.

Junpei was still frowning over that when she suddenly stepped up in front of him, glaring with her clenched fists still raised. "Come on, Junpei!"

"Wha…?" He blinked, and she flung out her arm, lashing the clock with wind but apparently more to make a point.

"Let's beat them!" she announced. "With the two of us working together, there's no way we can lose!"

"You…" He shook his head, not following. "You want to work with me?"

"Junpei!" She grabbed up his hand and held it up, clasped right in front of their eyes. For a moment, he recoiled, fighting his twelve year old self's happy daze with the knowledge she was just using his emotions… until he looked at her eyes. Anger, determination... and... maybe... trust. He raised his eyebrows, shocked, and she leaned forward a little. "The wind and the thunder can make a terrifying storm. Let's show them how."

He nodded, gripping her hand back. He was the strongest of the Chosen Children. She was the most nimble. They could do this, together. "Izumi…"

"Junpei," she said again, and then released his hand and spun around to stand at his side. "Let's go!"

"Right!" he said, and slapped his fists together, calling on the lightning that sparked around him. From the corner of his eye, he saw Izumi smirk as the lightning grew, though her nasty look was aimed directly at the clock.

"We'll show you how far we've come," she said, and then looked at Junpei, nodding once in warning before running forward. She flipped onto her hands and then bounced up, her wind pushing her up and higher than she should have been able to jump, then twisted in mid-air to charge a kick that crashed down on the leash connecting the dragon to the clock. It snapped under the pressure, and she swung around, forcing the dragon to dodge away or lose its tail to her kick.

"Rejekushion!" the clock screeched, waving its wand at her, and the dragon huffed out a blast of smoke. Startled, Izumi fell back, only to immediately have to dodge the clock's wand, but this time Junpei was there.

"Hey! I'm your opponent!" he snapped, and threw out a lightning bolt that made the clock squeal as it raised its wand to block.

"I am so sick of haato playing with our emotions!" Izumi cried, forcing the dragon back another step with her swinging boots and blasting it with wave after wave of air to keep the smoke back. "I shouldn't have to be ashamed of how I feel!"

"Yeah! If we wanted to deal with our issues, we woulda gone to a shrink!" Junpei added, blasting the clock with lightning that it only barely dodged. "I don't need to be reminded of what a loser I am!"

Izumi spun around to look at him, and then frowned as she turned back to the dragon. She hesitated, then flipped up and back to stand by Junpei. He glanced at her, and she nodded again. "Let's make sure they hear our complaints. Together," she added again, more meaningfully, and he blinked, then nodded.

She hesitated another moment, then shot out her arms, whirlwinds lashing around her fingers and stretching out toward both halves of the haato. "_Brezza_—"

Junpei raised his fist, a bolt of lightning falling from the skies to wrap around his fingers. "_Mjionir_—"

"_Petalo_!"

"_Thunder_!"

Izumi's whips shot out, snagging the clock around the middle and the dragon by the tail. They yanked the two up and slammed them together in mid-air, where Junpei's thunder crashed into them, making the dragon roar and the clock squeal as electricity surged through them. But he didn't let up, and Izumi held them crushed together, her expression locked as if she were making a point.

"Re-!" the clock began, jerking as it yelled. "Re-re-re-re-rejeku-"

Then everything exploded in a burst of shattered pixels, falling to the ground in a heap that slowly solidified into a small, broken little boy, wearing a white uniform with short trousers, his aquamarine hair hanging in his eyes. He looked up at them for a moment, just long enough for them to see the tears streaming down his cheeks, before he digitised into a stream of data, and Junpei pulled out his digivice.

"Spirits of corrupted evil, be purified by my thunder!" he snapped, swinging it up and around to catch the code. "Digicode… scan!"

* * *

><p>In the real world, Anzu sighed as Mokuba once again dropped his drink, this time scattering it across the floor as he shot to his feet.<p>

"I am not getting you another one," she informed him, folding her arms under her chest. "Also? Since we're not letting the cleaners in here until the kids are out? I just want you to know that I won't be cleaning that up."

She waited, but when he didn't respond, she frowned and began walking over, trying to see what on the monitor had shocked him so badly. But all she could see was binary, so she just looked back at him, confused. "Mokuba? What's wrong?"

"That… virus… it…" He slowly raised his head to stare at her, wide-eyed. "It was Noah."

* * *

><p>[<em>Critical system error. Reboot required...<em>]


	24. Pride Goeth

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Three

"Pride Goeth…"

**TRUFAX: **There was this trend in the early millennium where anime went out of its way to tear down the cliché of light=good. I don't have any proof, but I _believe_ it was in response to Western animation's obsession with the dark anti-hero of the nineties. You will notice, though, that they never took any pains to suggest darkness had to be good, either.

* * *

><p>Now the smoke had cleared, Tomoki's head had as well, and he frowned, wondering why he'd been so convinced everyone would leave him behind. He'd never thought like that before – even when he was a child, he'd <em>known<em> he was a child, and that meant people needed to take care of him.

Granted, that was why most people had considered him a brat, but that didn't change the truth of the matter.

He wondered if everyone else had been hit by the same doubt. He glanced back at Junpei and Izumi, who were exchanging meaningful stares that a few days ago would have filled Tomoki with hope. Now he wondered if it was a sign of another brewing fight.

A weak cough by drew his attention back to Takuya, who was still sitting in the puddle of melted snow Tomoki had thrown at him. "Takuya?"

"You hit me again, I'm gonna hit back," he said, but he offered up a wavering smile as he did. "Guess I screwed up again, huh?"

His frown only deepened, and he folded his arms. "You could've really hurt us. You almost burnt down the forest."

"I was trying to get to the haato," he pointed out lamely, as if he didn't quite believe his own excuse.

"All we could see was smoke. You were attacking _smoke_ with _fire_. Didn't you think about that?" he asked, and then just stood there for a moment, waiting, before he spread his arms and leaned forward. "Takuya, you're supposed to be better than this! You – you're our leader! You're supposed to be –"

He stopped as Takuya looked at him blankly. "What, Tomoki? I was trying to protect you guys. I'm a fire-type, what do you expect?"

"You could have burnt down the forest!" he cried. "Takuya, that's just – just – I get what you were trying to do, but that was just… stupid! And hot-headed! And – and – and –"

"And exactly like Takuya," a voice interjected, and Tomoki whipped around to see Junpei and Izumi walking toward them, Junpei still clutching his digivice to his chest. "Stupid, irrational, impulsive…"

"Dangerous," Izumi added quietly, meeting Takuya's gaze. "Everything will not 'just be alright', Takuya. You are going to get us hurt, one day."

Junpei glanced at her, then back down at Takuya. "What she said."

For a moment, they just stared back, before Takuya's gaze dropped to his feet and Tomoki looked back at the person he'd always held up as larger than life.

It wasn't right. This wasn't how things were supposed to be.

Takuya was supposed to be a good, courageous person that could defeat anything. He wasn't supposed to be doing _things_ with Izumi or fighting with Kouji or being so reckless that… that…

…matched everything he'd always been.

At least, how he was before he started listening to the Digital World. And Kouji. Before he learned from the digimon inside him...

"Everyone," Takuya said quietly, standing up. "I'm sorry."

They looked at him warily, and he squared his shoulders, shifting his gaze to meet them each directly for at least two seconds before moving on.

"I screwed up. But I stand by what I was saying before. I think… this kinda proves my point. We have to go back to the Citadel," he said, gesturing through the trees. "I need to know what's going on here. We have two haato left, one of which is actually willing to give us answers as to why this is all happening. If we don't know that, we could just defeat Puraido and then end up repeating the same mistake as before."

"But Kouji –" Izumi began, and Takuya shrugged.

"Hey, you wanna go after him, be my guest. But I think he and Kouichi can fight off whatever might come after them, and I _need_ _to know_," he said firmly. "I can't keep doing this. But if you want to go after Kouji, I can tell you what Hiisutori tells me later. Your call."

He paused, waiting a beat, then turned on his heel and began striding away through the forest. The others stared after him for a second, then turned to look at each other. But, in the end, they did as they usually did, and followed Takuya's lead.

* * *

><p>Although he had always been more mental than visual, Kouji picked up a stick and drew a line in the dirt, labelling one end with the symbol of fire and the other with light. He then split the line in two with a vertical line, but retraced the first line as he spoke.<p>

"Two polar opposites. Takuya and me. Takuya has always acted before he could think, and as you say, I think about everything," he said, and traced the middle line. "By working together, we balance out, because although we can function fine on our own, we work better when we rely on each other. I stop Takuya from needlessly rushing into things and he forces me into action."

Kouichi stared at the diagram silently, knowing this had to be more than Kouji coming around to the fact they should go back to the others.

"The last few years, we've been moving further apart. Takuya is becoming wilder, losing control of his body and his mind. Unless I'm around, which is when he can cool off and think."

"Meanwhile, you've been getting colder, gathering information and brooding about everything," Kouichi agreed thoughtfully. "Unless you're with Takuya, when you get aggressive and angry."

Kouji pursed his lips but didn't comment, tracing the vertical line again. "Between the two of us is compromise that is actually workable. Something… normal. And all of you—you, Izumi, Tomoki and Junpei—you all fall somewhere along this line." He quickly sketched in their symbols, Kouichi and Izumi on Takuya's side, and Junpei and Tomoki on his. "But right now, none of us are on this normal line. None of us are… I don't know – _stable_."

"Right," he said slowly, then looked up. "So what?"

For all that Kouji responded, Kouichi may as well have stayed silent. "Every time we deal with haato, we become the extremes of our sides. Me and Tomoki fought to a logical end, whether that end made real sense or not. Takuya lost all control; you were angry, Izumi upset. I think it gets worse if the haato we're dealing with is actually after us specifically."

"Haato… The English word for 'heart'," Kouichi said, blinking suddenly. "That's what that girl said – the dancer."

Finally, Kouji glanced up. "Who?"

"She… someone Yuugi and the others know. She kept correcting us as we spoke. The haato's names, they're English words," he said slowly. "Haato is heart. Labu was love. Arogansu was arrogance."

"Emotions," Kouji realised quietly, and his stick traced Takuya's symbol again. "And Labu said my core wasn't good enough without strong emotions affecting it… while Takuya would be good enough on his own to get them to the human world. Because he's pure emotional reaction… The gateway. _He's_ the gateway that Pipismon told us about back in the beginning!"

Kouichi's eyes widened, shifting between his brother and the diagram. It made sense, but... "But then what does that have to do with this? What's the connection between the haato and us either becoming all emotion or not?"

"Give me a second," he murmured, gaze flicking over the diagram. "I'm thinking. It's about emotion and logic. Human and Beast spirits. Agunimon locked away in Takuya's soul while Vrytramon burns the Digital World… The haato want our emotions, and yet punish us for having them. Dependensu was after Tomoki because he's always relied on us. But when Tomoki absorbed Dependensu, he became Chakmon… He could evolve after he got the haato that wanted him specifically."

He continued staring for a moment, then pulled out his digivice and clicked through the buttons. Then he stopped, and his shoulders fell. "Wolfmon. I have Wolfmon back."

"What?" Kouichi scrambled around to join him in staring at the screen, and grinned at the familiar sight of his brother's Human Spirit. Unlike Lowemon, when they'd seen him from Izumi's digivice, Wolfmon looked fighting fit, even stronger than before. But still, the picture itself kept flickering, taken over by a hot-white glow that would quickly vanish before coming back a few seconds later.

Kouji's fingers tightened around the digivice for a moment before he lowered it and looked up again. "When I absorbed Labu, I got back Wolfmon. That means that the haato are either holding our spirits somehow, or…"

"…or that they _are_ the human spirits," Kouichi finished quietly. "All that's left of them…"

"And when we absorb them, we restore them," Kouji murmured, frowning at his digivice. "Only… not quite, because we're not what we should be, either…"

"Well, aren't you two the brilliant thinkers," a new voice interrupted, and they both spun around, jumping to their feet at the ready. Then they blinked, because standing in front of them was… Yami.

Or maybe not Yami. Despite the bright sunshine, he was shadowed, and they could barely make out his face. His hair was a little longer and darker, and the spikes more jagged. And, weirdly enough, he was wearing some kind of long kilt thing, and even more gold jewellery than he had in the real world. He set his hand on his hip, his almost hidden eyes glinting somehow in the shadows.

"Y-Yami…?" Kouichi murmured, and the man huffed out an amused breath, but didn't say anything.

Kouji slowly shook his head, lifting his digivice again. "Not Yami. This is what Agunimon was warning Takuya about."

"A haato?"

"It has to be either Puraido or Rejekushi-"

"Rejekushion has just been absorbed," the not-Yami informed them bluntly. "The gateway almost killed your friends, trying to defeat it. You should have been there."

Kouji flinched, but Kouichi pushed in front of him, raising his fists. "So you're Puraido, huh? Which of us are you after? You think you can take us both on, now that Kouji's got Wolfmon back and I'm really ticked off?"

Not-Yami didn't seem to move, but something in his aura shifted slightly, as if Kouichi had hit a nerve. After a moment, though, he murmured, "Yes, I believe Puraido can take you on. Though he's not after either of you. He has his core. Has had it for years. Not that it ever mattered to me."

"What?" Kouji demanded. "You're not Puraido?"

"Puraido is my harbinger. Never my maker," he said coolly. "That said, he would gladly take you on, Light. You certainly irritate him enough. And I don't want you around. Either of you."

"What, but you're too chicken to fight us yourself?" he snapped. "Who are you? What do you want?"

For a long moment, not-Yami just gazed at him in silence, and the twins shifted uncomfortably. His stillness, combined with the shadows and how calm he was, all combined to something that could only be defined as creepy. He wasn't like the other haato. They were all so over the top; so melodramatic. While they took them all seriously, there was something… exaggerated in them. Something that gave an impression of a weakness to exploit. In this one, however…

He was just there.

Quite clearly their enemy, and open in his desire to get rid of them, but it just seemed like a fact. Not a drive, but… just a fact. He wanted to destroy them.

Kouichi unconsciously shifted his weight until his back touched Kouji's shoulder.

"Light and darkness," not-Yami murmured. "One shines too brightly to see and the other blocks out everything. You would bother me… but together, with nothing else to change the field… you're just shadows."

They glanced at each other quickly, then looked back at him. He paused another moment, then raised his voice a little.

"Puraido!"

There was a blast of wind that ruffled their clothes and hair, and Kouichi had to shield his eyes, but Kouji continued glaring as a bright light shot forward, bouncing around the trees to finally form into a small figure. Eventually, the light dimmed, and the twins blinked again, as they found themselves staring at what looked like Yuugi, but not. Even without the clothes, which Kouichi thought actually looked a little like something Seto Kaiba wore during Duelling Tournaments, he was different. He was a little taller, and his eyes were completely different; a deep, dark blue.

He bowed to them dramatically. "Greetings, my adversaries. My name is Puraido. I will be your end."

Kouji frowned a little, confused. Looks aside, this didn't seem like the Puraido from his dream, though he supposed he shouldn't be surprised. He'd never been much of a prophet, even if his dream had been made by a haato.

The not-Yami bowed his head. "I'll leave it to you. Don't disappoint me. I still need the gateway, and that thing will make it harder."

And then, without them even blinking, he was gone, leaving just the last haato and the twins to stare at each other.

Puraido smiled vaguely, spreading his arms. "I am the leader, and the greatest of the haato. I suppose it's only fitting that I should battle the Grand Strategist of the Shining Pair, and his absolute Opposite, the Harbinger of Darkness," he said grandly. "This is definitely going to be a great battle."

The twins glanced at each other, then shrugged, and got ready to fight. For a few moments, all three just stood completely still, staring at each other and waiting for the first move. When it didn't come, Kouji glanced down at his digivice, trying to decide whether he should use it or not.

On the one hand, Wolfmon was a form he knew. He knew Wolfmon's powers, and he had a variety of attacks that, without some kind of sword, Kouji didn't have. On the other hand, that light power, and the strength that had come with it during his fight with Labu…

Kouichi shifting slightly caught his attention, and he frowned. Either way, Kouichi didn't have a weapon on hand, which meant he was next to useless. He reached up and gently pushed him aside.

"Leave it, Big Brother. I can handle this."

"Wha – Kouji, you're the one he's after!" he hissed. "And you're still weak from yesterday, and you haven't slept. What if –"

"I'm still stronger than you," he pointed out, without so much as a hint of reprimand, but Kouichi still glared at him.

"Kouji…!"

"It's one Haato, and I have Wolfmon if anything goes wrong. I can handle it," he said, and stepped forward, raising his voice as he pointed at Puraido. "I'll be your opponent. Come and get me!"

"Alone?" Puraido smiled, raising his eyebrows. "No two on one? It would make it fairer."

"Like you said: I'm the Grand Strategist of the Shining Pair," he said, slipping his digivice back into his pocket and pulling on his light, instead. "I fight with logic and reason, and I fight well. I can beat you."

The haato just smiled at him wryly, shaking his head, but stepped forward, twisting his arms in a complicated and vaguely martial-looking move before coming to a halt with his arms at the ready, palms facing outward with his left half a foot in front of his right. "And that attitude, even though you're not my core, is the reason I'll take so much pleasure in destroying you."

"Tch. Prepare yourself," he warned, and then leapt forward, drawing light into his fists to bolster his strength. He ducked, then thrust his fist up, aimed directly for the haato's solar plexus, but the moment his arm passed the haato's left hand, there was a flash of light, and his body froze.

"Wha…?" He tried to yank back, but he couldn't move more than his head, and he stared up at Puraido, who smiled condescendingly.

"I told you: I am the leader and the strongest of the haato. And you, of all people, are the least equipped to deal with me," he informed him, and then pushed his right hand forward. Kouji stumbled as his body was released, only to land on a wave of shadow that pushed out from Puraido's hand. It held him for a second, then threw him back, up into the air and away.

He hit the ground hard, slamming into the dirt and rolling. Kouichi cried out and took a step toward him, only to be hit by a flash of light that threw him over the ridge of the hill they had stopped on.

"Big Brother!" Kouji shouted, before he was caught by another shadow wave and slammed back into the dirt. He coughed out a lungful of dust and looked up, only to find Puraido walking towards him, left hand forward again.

"You were so close to figuring it out, too," he said conversationally. "I suppose it would be a little galling if I told you how we're connected, and what we Haato are, and why you are just gonna plain fail in a fight with me… So yeah, I think I will tell you."

"You have to gloat?" Kouji muttered, and pushed a hand into the dirt to force himself back to standing. He dropped back into a ready stance and glared. "I'm barely even scratched. Let's go."

"By all means," he said brightly, and then shoved his right hand forward. The darkness lashed out again, but Kouji was ready this time. He lunged away, bouncing off his hands and flipping back to his feet in order to rush forward and catch Puraido in his side. But the haato rolled his hips with the hit, hooked his right arm up under Kouji's ribs and used his own momentum to flip him up over the haato's head. Once again, Kouji hit the ground hard, this time on his back, and Puraido stomped his foot down on Kouji's stomach. Then he spread his hand directly above Kouji's face and threw out a blast of shadows that crashed into him like ice. He gasped at the pain, but that only opened his mouth to it, and he choked, twisting away on instinct.

Puraido let him go with a quiet laugh. "Hurts, doesn't it? To be stopped by your own power and destroyed by your weakness? Funny how they're connected like that, huh?"

He coughed, curling his fingers into the dirt as he struggled to breathe. "Yeah, you're a real riot," he croaked, and then retched, slamming his fist against the ground as if that would help him.

"Haato means heart," Puraido explained. "We were all created in the hearts of the Legendary Warriors. The things that made them strong… and also what made them weak. Your love for your family, both blood and not. It gave you purpose, but it's so easily manipulated. Your brother's self-hatred – that fear of the dark and what it means. Or, in my case… Ranamon's pride in her own abilities and beauty. It made her angry, and determined… but when it was proven wrong… she fell hard." He began to chuckle, stepping back as it came stronger, until he was outright laughing. "Do you know how easy it was to find that core? It was just sitting there, in the Village of Beginnings, guarded by these pathetic little Toucanmon. All of them insisting that redemption was possible and love could conquer all."

He clapped his hands, managing to get his amusement down to a quiet giggle. "Like I gave a damn about love or redemption. Ohh, it was great. All I had to do was send Labu and Serufu in there and _wow_, did the fireworks go off! Those poor little birds… never saw it coming." Almost casually, he pushed his hand forward and Kouji hit the ground in another wave of darkness that left him shuddering. Puraido flicked his forelocks back and continued, "Pride, you know… it's dangerous. Pathetic, actually. It's this… idea we have. This confidence in ourselves that we base everything we are around. And so when, eventually, we're told that we're wrong, or that there are more important things… it hurts."

"Arrogance," Kouji mumbled, struggling to push himself up, but Puraido held out his left hand, and a bright light kept Kouji pinned to the dirt.

"No. No, arrogance is different from pride. Arrogance is unfounded. Pride has truth to it. Arrogance means you _think_ you're better. Pride means that you know you are. One is self-deception, while the other is confidence. It's the difference between you and the Great Fighter." He knelt down over Kouji's back and rolled him over, still holding him down with that bright light. He gestured to his hand. "But the thing with pride is that it's ultimately a cage. You're so proud of your abilities, and what you _know_. You are the best fighter among all your friends – it's your job to protect them. Even the one that's more powerful than you."

He struggled to open his mouth to argue, but the light kept him still, and Puraido smiled.

"No, Kouji, Takuya is more powerful than you. He's a little thicker, and technique-wise, he can't fight for crap, but if you could just get past that pride of yours, you'd know he could kick your butt in this world." He paused, then grinned and nodded. "And that's the rub, isn't it? This world. He wants this world. Kinda clashes with what you _know._ Because you know you're meant to go back. And yet, with every word, every action, he's arguing. _Arguing_. And you're too proud to see his perspective, huh? Because you know better."

Kouji wanted to look away, or close his eyes, or glare, or something…! But all he could do was keep staring up at those cold blue eyes, which stared down at him with the exact same look he knew so often came from his own. For all that Puraido was telling him he didn't, he kind of already knew all this stuff he was saying. He knew the reason things were so messed up right now: it was because he couldn't understand why things were so complicated. He couldn't understand why Junpei and Izumi weren't already engaged. He couldn't understand why Tomoki was so upset now. He couldn't understand Takuya at all.

But if he just _could_… if he could see the other side – understand what they were all thinking, in their strange, illogical way… things would be better.

But he wasn't sure it was strictly because of his pride that this was happening. He was pretty damn sure it had something to do with the same thing that was making Takuya go all emotional.

Or was that just pride talking, too…? Refusing to accept responsibility?

"Pride holds you captive inside your own ideals," Puraido continued, bringing his right hand up as well, darkness swirling around it in threat. "And so when self-doubt comes in, it hits hard. And it just destroys you. So I'm going to tell you a secret… one that might have saved your life in the coming fight with Fiiru, if you had lived."

The darkness hardened and sharpened into a point, so much like a blade, but Kouji couldn't move his eyes away from that calm, defiant gaze.

"You weren't alone," Puraido murmured. "You weren't the only one. When you fight with others, the darkness isn't so bad."

"But it sure as hell is on your own," a new voice ground out, and Puraido blanched a second before something slammed into the side of his head and threw him off. Kouji gasped and shoved himself up to sitting, fighting for breath he hadn't noticed he'd been missing, and then gaped up at his brother.

Darkness licked its way up and off Kouji in waves, making his hair sway in a wind that wasn't there, and he glared out from under it, his hands clenched around a broken branch that was so covered in shadow that it looked more like a real weapon.

For a second, Kouji flashed back to his first time in the digital world, and the breathless fear everyone had for the Dark Area. For the person his brother had been. Cherubimon's right hand man, who was capable of bringing all five of the Legendary Warriors to their knees.

On the edge of the cliff, Puraido clambered back to his feet, swiping his thumb across his bottom lip with a chuckle as he met Kouichi's gaze. "Sorry, sorry! I forgot about you. I thought you'd been knocked over the edge."

Kouichi didn't answer, but instead drew his branch up and across his body, his free arm going behind his back. Kouji swallowed despite himself. He remembered now: still, silent, and deadly. That had been Duskmon.

That had been what the whole Digital World feared.

"Your core…" Puraido narrowed his eyes, and then smiled. "You were the one Serufu should have taken. Only he was so taken by his own corruption – he fell to it. As we all did, I guess."

"Serufuheetoradu," Kouichi murmured. "Self-hatred, you said. That's what the haato got from me?"

Puraido just smirked, his arms swinging up and around into that odd stance of his again. "I guess I did say that. So, what are you going to do? Fight me? Defend your little brother? Tell me he's not that proud and he can overcome it?"

"No," he said simply. "It's true: Kouji is too proud for his own good."

Kouji winced, but between how terrifying his brother looked and the fact he was still having trouble moving, he decided to stay still and get his strength back rather than argue.

"So you'll bide time until he has the strength to fight?" Puraido guessed. "Or maybe like the Great Fighter suggested against Potensharu? One distracts while the other attacks? It could work, given my powers. Make me fight with light against the Darkness, while the Light sneaks up and skewers me. I like it. Wanna try?"

Again, Kouichi stayed silent, and Puraido's grin widened.

"Or maybe you think you can take me on yourself! The great Harbinger of Darkness! You certainly have the power… I bet you even overcame your core! Maybe that's why Serufu failed – he fought you and lost! Are you _proud_ of your abilities, Harbinger? Because Kouji and I can tell you exactly where that's going to take you…"

"I'm not proud," he said, and then swung his branch back over his shoulder before whipping it down. The darkness blasted out in a wide blade, but Puraido shoved his left hand forward and caught the blade on a matching shield. He struggled against it for a second, one foot actually slipping off the cliff before he regained his footing and the shadow wave dispersed. He bared his teeth in what might have been a smile, and Kouichi brought his branch up again. "Not of me. I'm not proud of who I was, what I was, or who I am now. I'm darkness. I'm not supposed to be a hero. All the movies, all the shows, they all tell me I'm the bad guy, and with the exception of dying so my little brother's body could be a centre for the chaos that kick-started a new evolution, I haven't done a damn _thing_ to prove that wrong."

"Big brother…" Kouji whispered, and Kouichi's shoulders set a little firmer.

"Even since then, all I've done is mope and get down on myself. Hated the world. Hung around with other people who hated the world. Watched my brother and his best friend fall apart and refuse to see it for what it was," he said coldly. "Even when I've fought, in this world, it wasn't because I wanted to save people, or set things right, or even because I was told to! It's because I've been angry! Because I'm sick of you and the Digital World and everything about this place ruling our whole lives!"

Kouji flinched and dropped back as a wave of darkness shot out from his brother, and Puraido nearly slipped again, but stumbled forward a few steps once he regained his footing. Kouichi just glared and tightened his grip on the branch.

"I'm angry, and upset, and I hate it all. I'm not proud of any of that, but I accept it. It is what it is, and it's just a part of being Darkness!" he shouted, and slashed his branch up and out. Again, it threw out a blast of energy that Puraido just managed to catch, but the haato twisted to let the wave slip off to the side, and then spun around to push his right hand forward, and an arc of light shot out. Kouichi barely got his arms up in time to block, and yelled as it ripped his forearms open, but he stayed up and immediately countered with a Dark Dart that Puraido only just dodged.

The minor exchange done, Kouichi lowered his arms and branch and went back to glaring from under his hair. "I accept that about myself, and I'm not proud of it. But I am proud of other things. Of my friends, who fought to save this world when they should have just gone home. Of Junpei, whose heart is so strong it's lasted five years of unrequited love. Of Tomoki, who overcame everyone's doubts—including his own—to become a person he really liked. Of Izumi, who can stand up and say what's right, even when it's hard. Of Takuya, who keeps moving and fighting even when it seems hopeless."

Where he had been standing at the ready, smiling in vague amusement, Puraido's lips twitched downward at that, his fingers curling a little toward his palms. Kouji rolled to his knees, his eyes narrowing, but kept himself low, just in case.

But Kouichi didn't notice, and drew himself up again with a furious smile. "More than anything, I'm proud of my little brother. He has no idea how to deal with his own feelings, he's too self-assured, he thinks about everything so much it stops making sense… but I'm proud of him. He was ready to take on the whole Digital World alone, when he was eleven. At that same age, he saved me, saved our friends, and became the Grand Strategist of the Shining Pair: one of two people who could have saved everything!"

"That's enough," Puraido said suddenly, almost compulsively.

Kouji slowly managed to get to his feet, and Puraido looked to him, his hands twitching again, but Kouichi lashed out with the branch before he could do anything. The haato pulled back with a hiss, and Kouji's lips curled up in a smirk.

"What? No comeback? No pseudo-psychology to confuse us?"

"If the truth confuses you, I don't _need_ to analyse you," Puraido said with a shade of his former gloating, but the silent threat of Kouichi kept him on the defensive.

"Come on, Kouichi put it all out there for you. He's proud. He's what bothers you. Show us how it's all wrong!" He took a shaky step forward, and put his hand in his pocket to grip his digivice for strength. "But he's not like me – he's proud of someone _else_. And you can't touch that, can you?"

Kouichi glanced at him quickly, his eyebrows rising in shock. Then he looked back at Puraido, who pulled away again, his hands constantly twitching. Kouichi inclined his head and took a matching step forward. "Your powers are wrapped up in us. Our pride in ourselves."

"The stronger our pride in ourselves, the stronger his shield," Kouji said, and Puraido's left hand almost clenched shut for a second, wisps of bright light slipping between his fingers before being taken over by darkness that quickly faded. Kouji brought out his digivice and lifted his free hand at the ready. "That's why he can hold me still with it, but it barely holds up against you."

"_That's enough_!" Puraido yelled, and threw out his hand in a wave of bright light. Kouji felt his whole body clench up as it hit, but Kouichi spun his branch through it, cutting it off, before swinging the branch down and into Puraido's stomach. He choked and fell over it, nearly folding, but shoved out his right hand to grip Kouichi's shirt, and another bright light began to flare. "I can still attack just fine!"

Kouichi's breath hitched, but he didn't have time to do more than that before the blast hit hard and rocked him off his feet. He landed roughly, scraping through the dirt, and Puraido fell over him, but recovered fast to let loose another shot that made Kouichi scream.

"Get off him!" Kouji yelled, and he slammed a foot into Puraido's side to kick him off. As the haato slid back through the dirt toward the cliff edge, Kouji threw out his hand and digivice to call on the power he thought he'd left behind. "_Double Spirit Evolution_!"

The last thing he saw before the data covered him was Puraido's furious grin. "About time…!" he cried, then had to duck as Kouichi swung his branch.

In the meantime, data had flowed through Kouji, building him up and layering him in armour. As it did, he felt something inside snap, and he gasped, barely able to grab his sword as his mind flooded with facts he already knew.

It was all there. All the truth and logical conclusions belonging to those truths. What should have been. The fact they were born human, and therefore belonged to a human world. That the haato were viruses, and therefore needed to be deleted. That if they could just remove the digital world from themselves, delete all its remnants from their system, then they would be fine. Then they could go home, and things could go back to how they were supposed to be.

Junpei could convince Izumi of his love. They would end up married.

Tomoki would become a good, strong, independent man and show them all how it was done.

Kouichi could finally stop hating himself, and learn to enjoy life without darkness.

Takuya would be human again. He wouldn't need this world. He would only need Kouji.

Once they beat Puraido, all the haato would be gone. The only corruption would be in them. If they could get back to the real world and somehow destroy this one –

"_Beowulfmon_!" Kouichi yelled, and he tried to blink, only to realise he couldn't. He was frozen in a world of bright light, and couldn't even breathe. He could just see Puraido through the light, panting hard but grinning furiously, both arms extended in opposite directions as light flared around him.

"I love it. Pride in your evolved form, which is even prouder than your normal self," Puraido panted, and the light shifted just enough to let Kouji see the haato standing in front of him, arms out in opposite directions with light flowing out of him in waves. From the corner of his eye, Kouji could just see Kouichi cowering behind a wall of darkness starting from his branch, light lashing against it in a constant attack. Puraido had them both caught. He grinned at Kouji's stare. "All my power comes from your pride. How's it feel?"

Kouji tried to bring up his sword, but he could barely move a single muscle in his arm. He had to fight to even pull breath into his lungs. And everything was tinted brighter, logic and truths filling his mind with every passing second. Puraido's grin only widened, and he took a step forward.

"It's simple, really. Logical," he added teasingly. "You're part digimon. Part computer. Computers are logical, with no emotions or morals… and in your case, the more logical you become, the more sure you are of what you can do. The more pride you have! The more I have to work with!"

"But… not with… me!" Kouichi ground out, and Puraido looked at him quickly, smile fading. He growled, struggling to push his branch out and failing under the pressure. "Once… I get out… of this…!"

"You had your chance," Puraido snapped. "But you were too proud of your brother. You figured that once he evolved, you wouldn't have any problems. How's that working out for you?"

"If he gets free…! If either of us get free, we're gonna kick your butt," he said, and shoved his branch and the wave coming out of it up, managing to stagger to his knees. Puraido shoved his right hand forward again, and another wave of light crashed against the darkness, making Kouichi slide back through the dirt until his boots hit a tree. Using that as leverage, he managed to work his way into a crouch, leaning into the light. "You can't keep us both down and destroy us both at the same time. Eventually, you're going to have to make a decision!"

"Stop holding one down to attack the other," Puraido snarled. "I know."

"So which'll it be?" he demanded. "I'm not as powerful, but I'm not weak against you, and I'm really upset. Beowulfmon is one of the strongest digimon in the history of this world and without the Royal Knights, he's almost definitely the fastest. Which of us can you take down first?"

Kouji struggled to pull in a breath, and just managed to turn his eyes a little, just enough to see darkness cut through the light, licking up Kouichi's sides. He couldn't let go of his branch with either hand to pull out a Dark Dart, but he was clearly ready to go on the offensive the moment Puraido stopped attacking.

For a moment, the haato could only look between them, extending his arms as far as they would go and pouring on the power as if that could stop time. It did tighten Kouji's chest, and Kouichi grunted as he was pushed further against the tree, but there was no hiding the concern in Puraido's eyes.

He bit his lip, and in the light-addled recesses of Kouji's mind, he realised Puraido really did look like Yuugi… until those dark blue eyes hardened and turned on him directly.

"I have to destroy one of you, and you're likely to cause the most problems with the gateway," he mumbled, then looked up at the sky. "It's been an honour, Fiiru-sama… and it will be an honour to fall to the Harbinger of Darkness. I will fight well to the end."

Then he clenched his right fist, and half the shining light around them cut off. Without the attacking pressure, Kouichi fell forward and hit the dirt hard, while Puraido swung his arm up and around into a dangerous blade of darkness aimed straight for Kouji's neck.

He tried to brace for the attack, but all he could manage was a gasp and his eyes twitching, the light holding him in place. He watched it come, but there was nothing he could do as the blast slammed into him, slicing into his armour and knocking what little air he had from his lungs. The blade dissipated, only to be followed by another that crashed against the rockets in his chest plate, which exploded and knocked his rigid body to the ground.

He was going to die, he realised dully. He couldn't fight back, and Kouichi was too much of a klutz, even as terrifying as he looked. He wasn't actually that powerful. Kouji was going to die, and that was it.

He had a vague idea that maybe he should have been a little more concerned about this than he was. But then, he thought to himself as another blast of darkness ripped his arm cannons loose and burnt against his skin, he was almost pure logic right now. Dying was… well, it sucked, but it made _sense_.

Suddenly, his body was released from its hold, and he gasped, then screamed as his body registered how much pain it was in. He didn't have time to realise Kouichi had slammed his darkness-covered branch against Puraido's left hand, crushing it and forcing the light to disperse.

He didn't see the branch whip upwards from the broken limb to slam against Puraido's jaw, or Kouichi's clumsy follow-up punch that furthered the damage. He was in too much pain to watch Kouichi pull three dark blades from the air and throw them into Puraido's stomach.

All he heard was the pain from his broken, burnt body, so he wasn't paying any attention as Kouichi stepped up over Puraido, drawing his branch up over his head.

"I told you: I'm not the good guy," he said quietly. "So I hope this hurts. I'm not proud of this, but you should have remembered."

He stabbed the branch down into Puraido's chest, and watched the data flow, not bothering to bring out his digivice or recite a prayer for its purification.

"Darkness can conquer anyone."

* * *

><p>Since they were no longer trying to make themselves known, or weaving their way around to find villages, it only took them another day to reach the Forest Terminal. Takuya didn't even have to pause once as he led the way up the winding steps, and the guarding branches just pulled themselves out of his way, so it was less than an hour after they'd reached the terminal before they were standing on the Citadel platform, staring up at the crystal palace.<p>

For a moment, they just stood there, smiling up at it, and Takuya let go of a long breath he didn't know he'd been holding, his shoulders relaxing for the first time in days.

"Okay," he said, and then turned to the others. "Let's find Bokomon and the others, and then we can go talk to Hiisuto-"

"Takuya-haaaaaan!"

"Bokomon!" they all cried, as the crystal door flew open and two little digimon came running out. Tomoki laughed as he found himself with an armful of Neemon, and Izumi squeaked as Bokomon began clambering all over her, checking all the differences.

"What-what-what? You're all different! I couldn't tell properly through the barrier before, but you're all big!" he announced, and sprang over to Tomoki to stare at him particularly. "You look so strange!"

"Well, yeah, it's been five years since you saw me! I kinda went through puberty," he pointed out with a laugh, and despite themselves and the situation, the other three snorted in response. He blinked and looked back at them. "What?"

"Oh," Izumi shook her head. "Nothing."

"Nothing at all," Takuya agreed.

"We're just… suddenly reminded of how much we're looking forward to the next few years," Junpei finished.

He looked at them all suspiciously, but wasn't really given time to say anything before he was distracted by Bokomon's foot in his face and Neemon swinging around his leg in order to get to Junpei. Tomoki squawked, nearly falling off-balance, but Bokomon found his own and frowned at Takuya.

"You look different too."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, yeah, we talked about this before. Flamon, different evolution…? Ringing a bell?"

"Not what I meant!" he announced loudly, then pointed at him. "You look different to the last time we saw you! Even your markings have changed!"

They all blinked, then looked down at Takuya's chest. Sure enough, now they looked, his markings did seem darker – and they had lost their pink tone, becoming more of a sooty grey, like the ones on his feet. And, they noticed, they seemed stretched, as they suddenly realised he was taller, his horns now on level with Junpei's shoulder. They hadn't noticed because he'd broadened out too, his size almost equal with Tomoki, now they looked.

"When…?" Izumi murmured, as Takuya pulled up his hands to inspect his claws again. They were such subtle differences that it was possible they just hadn't noticed, but still. Digimon didn't change except in their evolution, usually.

"I…" Takuya curled his claws into his fists and straightened up, forcing a smile into place. "I guess that's another reason why we're here." His eyes flicked over to the crystal doorway, where Sorcerymon was waiting in silence. "Hey."

"Great Fighter," he acknowledged, and bowed to the others. "Legendary Warriors."

They bowed back automatically, then exchanged blank glances and chuckled. Sorcerymon didn't seem to notice, using his staff to gesture into the palace. "Hiisutori-sama awaits your questions."

* * *

><p>[<em>Program Error… Immediate reboot required… Program Error<em>]


	25. Ancient Hiisutori

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-four

_**Ancient Hiisutori**_

**TRUFAX:** You know, in the end, the Noah arc really all came down to Mokuba, and Yami looking at Noah a certain way…

* * *

><p>The elevator began to slow as it neared the ground floor, and Mokuba tensed, turning away from the door and swearing for the fifth time in ten minutes.<p>

"That isn't going to help," Anzu said mildly, eyeing him from behind her fringe.

He just swore again and then stopped, straightening his shoulders and turning back to the door, just in time for it to slide open.

On the other side, a very flustered Yami, Jounouchi and Mai stared at them blankly.

"Anzu," Yami greeted blankly.

"Mokuba…" Jounouchi added. "Who's downstairs with the kids?"

He opened his mouth, then stopped again and turned away with what could only be described as a whimper. The others stared at him until the doors began to slide shut, then cursed and leapt inside too.

"What's going on?" Mai asked Anzu, as the lift began to ascend again.

"We just found out what the virus is," she said quietly. "Mokuba is… very technically… a little responsible for it."

Yami's head snapped around, but Mokuba didn't meet his glare, gripping the back of his own neck and staring at the shining floor.

"And when Seto finds out…" she continued, biting her lip, "we may have a problem."

"We already have a problem," Jounouchi snapped. "We thought we were beating the Duel Monsters back, but all we've been doing is clearing the way for bigger, nastier monsters to kick our butts! They're playing illegal cards!"

"Illegal cards?" she repeated, and Yami nodded, still glaring at Mokuba.

"Spirit magic cards. Like Deepest Impact."

"What?"

"Meteors that wipe the field of all monster cards and halve the opponent's life points," he said, stepping up close to Mokuba. "I've only ever seen it once."

By Mokuba just turned his head so he didn't have to meet Yami's gaze and rubbed his neck a little harder until they reached the top floor and could step out. Yami spun away from Mokuba and strode out, sweeping past Kaiba's surprised secretary with long practice and just slamming the door to his office open mid-stride.

"We need another solution," he announced, as the others hurried in after him. "The children are not cutting it, and we can't win against the monsters that are out there. Not without a duellist controlling them."

"What a coincidence," Kaiba said quietly, watching Mokuba slink up to the desk. "I just said the same thing."

Jounouchi shrugged and folded his arms. "Okay. Cool with me. I say we pull the kids. Tell them to come out – that we've got some kind of solution. Then shut Kaiba Corp. and all its systems down. Then Yami rains blood and hellfire and the rest of us hide under our beds until the darkness goes away."

"Will that shut down this virus thing?" asked Mai, and Kaiba frowned.

"If we could remove it completely. A magnetic pulse –"

"No!" snapped Yuugi. "No, Seto, we can't do that. We can't destroy this other world!"

"Aibou –" Yami began, but Yuugi cut him off with a quick look.

"We can't destroy a _world_!" he repeated. "That's what we usually fight against!"

"This isn't a real world, Yuugi," Anzu pointed out quietly. "It's just data."

"Not to those kids! Not to the creatures that live there!" he cried, then flung out his arm in point. "Flamon-san literally exists there now! He's little more than an idea, in this world!"

"Aibou," Yami said again, sighing, but it was Anzu who kept arguing.

"And that is a bad thing. He's a human boy, Yuugi. He has parents. A family, and friends. We need to stop whatever's turning him into a monster and bring him back," she said firmly. "That world isn't safe, and it's threatening ours. We need to stop it from causing any more damage. From ever doing this sort of thing again!"

The others looked at her, surprised, and she frowned back, then walked over to shove Mokuba's shoulder. "Tell them!"

"Uhh…" He grimaced and looked away, and Kaiba narrowed his eyes.

"Tell us what?"

"It… the virus, it…" He rubbed his neck again, slowly raising his gaze to meet his brother's. "It's not so much a virus as… a… thing."

"Thing?" Mai repeated.

"Well… kind of… a computer program that… it's…"

"It's trying to get into our world," Yami said quietly, and Mokuba lowered his gaze again. "It's a computer program that's trying to become human."

Yuugi frowned, stepping away from the desk. "The other me?" he prompted. "What are you talking about?"

"It came to me when a spirit-type monster appeared: Inaba White Rabbit. There's only one opponent that's ever played that card with any degree of success. And with what you were saying the other night… that dream you had," he said, and reached out for Yuugi to take his hand, pulling him against his side. "Something that was neither human nor computer, but wanted to come to our world."

"That Noah thing you mentioned?" Mai asked, and then stopped, as even she and Jounouchi felt the temperature in the room drop several dozen degrees. Slowly, they turned to look at Kaiba, who had set his eyes on Mokuba and didn't seem likely to look away again.

"Noah?" he repeated coolly. "Why would that name ever come up?"

"Well…" Mokuba scuffed his foot on the carpet, but was saved having to answer by a complicated beep on Kaiba's laptop. He didn't look away from Mokuba, but pressed a button, and a light shot out to hit the ground in front of their group, where it slowly grew up into a hologram.

The twins, Kouji and Kouichi, were crouched with their heads bowed, clearly unaware that they had successfully made a connection.

"_No, really, that's all I ever saw Tomoki do. You pressed that part of the mat, and it opened_," Kouichi was saying, and his brother grimaced.

"_I don't know, Big Brother, I don't –_"

Yami grunted impatiently, and they both flinched and jumped up, only for Kouji to immediately crumble back to the ground. Yuugi moved forward instinctively before Yami held him back.

"Kouji-kun!"

"_It – oh, it's just holograms_," Kouichi breathed. "_We did it – it worked!_"

"Yes, and you have called at a very bad time," Kaiba snarled. "Make it quick."

"_Like hell_!" Kouji snapped, gripping his brother's arm to pull himself back to his feet. "_You guys have been screwing us around with secrets and half-truths ever since we met you. You owe us explanations._"

"Where are the others?" asked Jounouchi. "The fox-kid?"

Kouji flinched, but Kouichi shook his head. "_It doesn't matter. We need answers_."

"And you think we can provide?" asked Yami, and the twins glared at him.

"_You two – yesterday, we fought a haato that looked almost exactly like Yuugi-san_," Kouichi said, and then pointed to Yami. "_And we met something else that did look exactly like you, only wearing different clothes. And – and some of the haato, they're just like Kaiba-sama, only with funny-coloured hair_," he added, then clenched his fists and spun around to glare at them all in turn. "_You guys have to know something! And you've been lying to us all this time!_"

"_What do you have to do with the Digital World?_" Kouji demanded. "_How are you connected to it?_"

They exchanged glances, varying from dark to confused, but eventually, Mokuba looked up with a sigh.

"I guess… it all started about… fifteen years ago. With a boy named Noah. He was my big brother."

* * *

><p>Sorcerymon led them to a huge, beautiful room, which was dominated by a triangular table surrounded by thirteen high-backed thrones. Each of the thrones had a symbol on it, ten of them easily recognisable as the signs of the Legendary Ten. Without even thinking, they took their proper places, staring at the mess of papers in the middle of the table.<p>

Eventually, the paper pulled itself up into a vague human shape, and then solidified into the haato Takuya had met before. It was sitting cross-legged, facing him with a weary look on its face.

"Alright. You have held up your end of the bargain, and so have I. Now, I believe we are at matching aims. I would have people learn from the past. You would learn of it. Shall I speak?"

"Ohh, yeah," Takuya said firmly. "I want the whole story. Start to finish, let's go. I'm ready to learn."

"Me too," said Tomoki. "Something happened here that we didn't know about last time."

"And if it can tell us what's happening now, then…" Junpei spread his hands. "Bring it on."

"We need to know," Izumi finished, and Hiisutori inclined its head.

"Very well. It began, as things so often do, with good intentions. The good intentions of a man who only wanted the best for his child. His perfect, brilliant child: Noah Kaiba. He was a prodigy. He excelled in sport, music and science. He was taught by only the best, and drilled, day after day, to become even better. He was heir to the richest company in the world, and practically the very world itself. And then he died."

Izumi flinched despite herself, and Hiisutori glanced at her.

"It was no great loss. He was just a child. Brilliant, true, but time has shown the world to be better without him."

This time, Tomoki pulled back into his chair, but the haato ignored it and went back to Takuya.

"The car accident left Noah barely alive. He would never wake. And so his father, Gozaboro Kaiba, used his resources to keep his son alive through virtual means. A highly advanced artificial intelligence program, mirrored off his son's brainwaves."

"A computerised human," Junpei murmured, and Hiisutori nodded.

"But Gozaboro didn't see it that way. He saw a human computer. His son still lived. It wasn't until the artificial intelligence began to grow and evolve that he began to see it for what it truly was. It could mimic human images, emotions and speech, but… it wasn't human. It had no compassion. It calculated how long it would take to utterly decimate the world's population and reported it with a smile on its face, because it had nothing to do with it. It was just an interesting fact the program thought Gozaboro would like to know. That was what made Gozaboro realise what he had created. What made him realise his son was truly gone."

* * *

><p>"Thing was, it was already too late," Yuugi interjected. "Since the A.I. was taken directly from Noah's brainwaves, it was way more complex than your average computer program. It could have conversations, change its mind, build on itself…"<p>

"It was still a computer program, reacting to specific stimuli in order to construct certain responses," Kaiba ground out, but Yuugi just glanced at him before continuing.

"But those stimuli didn't have to be exact, which was more than most programs can even do now. And it was really obvious when Gozaboro created a world for Noah to live in: it had people and places, but those people and places never changed. They could only ever repeat the same day, and the same experiences. Over and over again. After a point, Noah's A.I. outgrew it."

"So he started to build his own world," Mokuba murmured, closing his eyes. "An extension of himself."

* * *

><p>"While Noah remained eternally young, creating a world to suit his young mind, the real world moved on, and Gozaboro adopted children to take his son's place. Seto and Mokuba," Hiisutori continued blandly. "Noah discovered this through security surveillance and legal documents that were sent online, but it made no sense to him. His memory told him his father would do anything for him. That he was Gozaboro's only son. The heir to Kaiba Corporation."<p>

"His father moving on and adopting more kids… that wasn't logical," Tomoki realised, and Hiisutori nodded.

"However, Gozaboro had often tested him while he was alive. It would be logical if he was doing so again, with this child Seto."

"A rival," Junpei surmised. "To push him to become better, right?"

"To become the most powerful ruler he could. If he could defeat Seto, then he was truly fitting to become the heir of Kaiba Corporation. And so, that became the primary objective of the computer program: become more advanced, more powerful, all-round better than Seto Kaiba, so that when Gozaboro made his decision over who had won, there would be no contest."

* * *

><p>"But didn't Gozaboro kill himself?" asked Mai. "I remember reading about it. Kaiba-boy here bought out the majority stock of Kaiba Corporation and Gozaboro had a total mental breakdown. Threw himself out a window."<p>

Mokuba nodded once. "Yup. But he had already put a copy of his own brainwaves into the computer, intending to live on forever. So even though Noah knew, from watching security tapes and the legal documents, that Gozaboro was dead, he also knew Gozaboro was still alive."

"Even though I know how this goes, I still don't get how that works," Jounouchi added, touching his forehead, and Yuugi shrugged.

"We're human – we're not really supposed to understand. We know that once someone's dead, they're… dead. Well. Usually," he added with a quick glance at Yami, who smiled and lowered his head so his nose touched Yuugi's hair.

Kaiba scowled and laced his fingers tighter, redirecting his gaze back to the twins. "Noah's programming wasn't advanced enough to recognise that a computer program isn't real. It rationalised the facts by saying that Gozaboro still existed, and so the 'rivalry' between the computer and myself still continued, and eventually Gozaboro would decide."

"Problem was that no matter how powerful Noah became in his world, Seto still had things Noah didn't," Yuugi continued. "World renown, legitimate success. A body."

"The solution came when the major stockholders of our company tried to trap Seto in a video game," said Mokuba.

"_What?_" Kouichi had to ask. "_Why would they do that?_"

"It got him out of the way. And it would cast doubt on the sanity of the family as a whole," Mokuba explained lazily, waving it off. "If my elder brother was crazy enough to have gotten himself stuck in a brain-dead coma because of a video game, how could I be expected to turn out better?"

"They would've been better off just reminding everyone what sociopaths they'd both been the year before," Yami muttered, but Yuugi elbowed him.

"Pot and kettle, Other Me."

* * *

><p>"The solution became simple. Noah had been created with brainwaves – electronic signals. If he could swap his brainwaves with that of Seto, he could have the living body, while Seto would remain in the virtual world he had created. It should have been impossible, but it made logical sense," said Hiisutori. "Furthermore, the event also had other side effects than just giving Noah the idea. In order to rescue his brother, Mokuba went to Yuugi Mutou, the wielder of a powerful magical artefact. When Yuugi entered the video game, his magic did as well, and began to warp the boundaries of artificial intelligence."<p>

* * *

><p>"It shouldn't have been possible, to swap bodies with a computer," Kaiba said darkly. "Even now, you cannot transpose a mind from its physical body. Otherwise my medical research division would be far more successful."<p>

"We figure the fact it did become possible is because of us, and our magic," Yuugi explained bluntly. "Body-swapping and mind-transitions and stuff like that are pretty standard for us."

"As Honda the meat-puppet can tell you!" Jounouchi announced with a grin that quickly faded when no one reacted. "Man, it's just no fun when he's not here…"

* * *

><p>"In time, the opportunity arose, and Noah pulled Seto and his companions into his virtual world. Seto and Mokuba Kaiba, Yuugi Mutou, Katsuya Jounouchi, Ryuuji Otogi, Hiroto Honda, Anzu Mazaki, and Shizuka Kawai. And he attempted to take them over. However, even as he affected them, Yuugi's magic in turn affected him. It continued to warp the computer, turning it into something more. Allowing it more ability to change. To evolve."<p>

"Wait, wait, wait," Junpei interrupted, waving his hands. "You keep saying Yuugi's name. What about the other one? Yami?"

Hiisutori turned to look at him blankly. "They still inhabited the same body at that point. The man who is currently Yami Motou was, back then –"

"Type B," Takuya realised, his eyes widening. "That's what Agunimon called him. Type B Yuugi. They were a split personality!"

"Or so it was believed, in that time," Hiisutori agreed. "It remains the same, regardless. Together, their magic was what changed this world. It allowed Noah to become more than his programming. The more he interacted with them, the more he outgrew his programming. Until eventually, he could understand that Gozaboro was no longer human, and neither was he."

"So did they give up on becoming human?" asked Izumi. "Did they make the Digital World after that?"

"No. Even as Noah recognised himself as a computer, and resigned himself to that fate, he still wished to become human. To become like Seto. He and his father were eventually destroyed, still fighting to reach the real world and become the humans they had once been."

* * *

><p>"Thing is, they were 'destroyed' by bombs," Mokuba continued, wincing as the story continued. "And they were data that had already touched Kaiba Corp.'s systems. They existed in our network, not in the physical location that had been blown up."<p>

"Not that we really noticed the difference," added Jounouchi. "I mean… big explosion, you'd kinda think it actually did something."

"But it didn't. Noah's world remained in the servers, half-corrupted but still there, for years, until I… found it one day," Mokuba said awkwardly. "I was going through old data and found the remains."

"And I specifically remember telling you to delete it completely," snapped Kaiba. "To wipe it from my hard drive, I believe was my exact phrasing."

"I _did_ delete it, I just…" he grimaced, rubbing the back of his neck again. "I just deleted it in the standard way, rather than how I think, in hindsight, you probably meant…"

"Our A.I. is specifically designed to reform when left alone," Kaiba said coldly. "Even when put into files that cannot be recovered. You knew that when you did it."

"Well…"

"So instead you left it for the last ten years, where it could grow and reform," he snapped. "You wanted to bring Noah back."

"I was barely fourteen! I was stupid and not thinking!" Mokuba cried, flinging his arms out. "And even if I had been thinking, Noah was… he's our history, Big Brother, I couldn't just delete him like he'd never existed!"

"He brainwashed you!" he yelled, shooting to his feet and making everyone else in the room flinch. "He _raped_ your _mind_, Mokuba!"

He opened his mouth to argue, then stopped and looked away, folding his arms over his waist. There was an awkward pause, before Yuugi grimaced and stepped forward, stopped there by Yami's hand on his hip.

"It doesn't matter now. It's done, and now, we just have to deal with the fallout. Okay? So… so let's think about what must have happened next."

* * *

><p>Tomoki tapped his knuckles against the table as he thought. "So from there, it's like they told us before. Kaiba Corp.'s A.I. systems are designed to reform over time, and since this data was already filled with magic, it was pretty easy for the data to join with the other junk data to create a whole new world. This world."<p>

"Exactly right," Hiisutori agreed. "But it was a world designed on that which had defined Noah. The battle of a computer against the human. The desire for the computer to become human, and force the human to become computer."

"The war," Junpei realised. "Human types and Beast digimon. We never really knew why they were fighting – we always just figured it was because they didn't like what was different. But this makes sense."

"It does?" Takuya asked blankly, and he nodded.

"They were just acting out the war Noah ended up having with himself. His human side and his computer programming, only it came up as human and beast."

Takuya frowned, glancing at Hiisutori, but the haato only nodded again.

"The Human Types represented his computer programming – they were logical, living in cities and working as he understood things were supposed to be done. The Beasts represented his understanding of human emotions and morals. They lived in tune with nature, relying more on family and pack, without much thought toward the future."

"So… what was Lucemon?" asked Izumi. "He stopped the war – what did he have to do with Noah?"

"Just as Yuugi Mutou interfered to stop the senseless battle Noah saw between himself and Seto Kaiba, Lucemon stopped the war between Human- and Beast-Types. And things were peaceful, until the programming forced the war to begin again, this time using Lucemon as the logically-driven computer, and the Legendary Ten as the passion-driven humans to defend against him."

"They sealed him away, but they didn't destroy him," Tomoki finished quietly. "Just like Yuugi-san and the others thought Noah had been lost in the destroyed base, but didn't really destroy him."

"And so history repeated itself, until another outside influence appeared to stop the battle," Hiisutori said, turning back to Takuya. "Six human children, to stop the corrupted data from attacking the emotion- and moral-driven magic."

"And by this point, the magic and data had gotten so powerful that it could actually reach real mobile phones," guessed Tomoki. "And the Trailmon could get to that… neither-real or not space under Shibuya Station."

"And then we went in, and became a little bit data ourselves," Izumi said slowly. "Giving the data a stronger link to the real world."

"And then I realised how to accept myself as a digimon," Takuya realised, staring at his claws. "I accepted the data into myself. I gave it a pathway."

"You became a gateway," Hiisutori corrected, and Takuya looked up at him. He simply gazed back, heaving a tired breath. "You became what Noah truly wanted: a way for data to access the real world. Something that could be changed in physical form to what was needed. Something that could operate in either world. A gateway to and from the Digital World."

"And… and so when history began to repeat itself again…" Izumi whispered, staring at him.

"When the computer and human began to clash," Junpei added.

"It happened _through_ us. Mostly you, since you were easiest to reach," Tomoki murmured. "You, and the one most connected to you."

"Kouji…" Takuya breathed, and pushed his hands up into his hair. "And when the time came for an outsider to step into the war…"

"It demanded attention in the real world, because it could," Hiisutori finished.

"Whatever happens to the Digital World will happen to me, and it will happen to me first," Takuya whispered, remembering Agunimon's fervent stare, back in his soul room. It was all clicking into place. He leaned forward until his elbows hit the table, then fell further forward, folding his arms over the back of his head. "We're just playing out the same programming, again and again…"

* * *

><p>"<em>You've got to be kidding!<em>" Kouichi yelled, shoving Kouji back as he stalked as close as the hologram would allow him to get to Yuugi. "_Everything we went through – everything that happened… it was all because of some – some – some dumb kid who didn't realise he was dead?_"

"_Big Brother Kouichi,_" Kouji said, but he went ignored.

"_And what, you're saying there's nothing we can do? That even if we destroy the last haato, and this Fiiru guy, and everything, that we're still going to become corrupted until someone puts us out of our misery?_" he demanded, then spun around to savagely point at Mokuba. "_All because you didn't _delete a file _ten years ago?_"

Yuugi grimaced. "It's a little more complicated than that."

"And much more easily remedied," Kaiba interrupted, and they all looked around at him. He straightened up, pulling his suit free of creases, and pushed back his chair. "We've isolated the problem: the haato are a sign of the corruption that was evident in Noah's programming ten years ago. All that is happening around us is a repeat of a cycle that began ten years ago. With that in mind, I have a childishly simple solution."

* * *

><p>"We haato are a representation of the corrupted computer attempting to become human," Hiisutori said blandly. "We are constructed around the concept of various human emotions that Noah developed in his evolution. Or, at least, as close as our programming can understand those emotions."<p>

"Even you?" asked Junpei, and for the first time, they caught a hint of a smile on Hiisutori's face.

"I represent the past. Memories. Regrets. I remember everything, and I possess the clarity to see it happening again. I am knowledge of what has happened."

"So… so does that mean you can see how it would be avoided?" he asked. "What we would need to do to stop the cycle?"

This time, his smile was a little more obvious, and yet sadder, at the same time. "Oh yes. All you would need to do is create a different final outcome than has previously been achieved. Finalise the war and declare a winner."

They exchanged glances, then looked back at him, confused.

"But how do we do that?"

* * *

><p>"Delete the Digital World and everything connected to it."<p>

* * *

><p>For a long moment, there was silence, as everyone stared at Kaiba, then around at each other. Eventually, their eyes turned to the twins, and then Kouji specifically, who just continued watching Kaiba.<p>

There was something very strange happening on Kouji's face.

"_How…_" he began finally, slowly, the words seemingly forced out, "_would you… do that?_"

"_Oh, right,_" Kouichi said with a relieved smile. "_You said you couldn't access the data. You can't actually delete the Digital World, right? You were just putting out ideas for us to try._"

"I would release a magnetic pulse near the servers that contain the junk data," Kaiba said bluntly. "It would be completely destroyed. And then I would destroy those servers. There would be no retrieval."

"No!" Yuugi and Mokuba shouted, but Yuugi was kept from surging forward by Yami's hands and Mokuba kept back at Kaiba's furious glance.

"Seto, you can't do that," Yuugi insisted. "This is a real world. It might not be real to us, but it exists, and you can't destroy it!"

"It's just a remnant of that pathetic computer program!" he snapped back. "It should have been destroyed a decade ago – it should never have been created! And now it's going to do to the whole world what it did to Mokuba."

"_He's right,_" Kouji said, and his brother flinched away. Kouji just shrugged and turned to him. "_It's the simple solution. If we destroy the Digital World and everything else, even the parts of us that are connected to it will have nowhere to go. Another electric pulse through our bodies—_"

"_—could kill us_!" Kouichi shouted, but Kouji didn't even blink.

"_More likely to just hurt. And it would remove everything digital left in us. We would just be human again,_" he said, a small smirk appearing on his lips. "_Even Takuya._"

"_Kouji, you are not thinking properly right now!_" Kouichi yelled. "_Haven't you been listening for the last two days? If not to these guys or Puraido then to _yourself_? You're not thinking like a human – once we fix you, you are going to realise how screwed up what you just said is!_"

"_I may not be thinking like a human, but I am thinking clearly,_" he argued calmly. "_And this is the most logical solution. I just didn't think of it before because I was operating on the assumption this world couldn't be destroyed._"

"_Kouji!_" he cried, gaping at him. "_You sound like Lucemon!_"

Kouji twitched, ever so slightly, but then just inclined his head with a mild smile. "_What we're suggesting would make sure creatures like Lucemon never existed again._"

"Wait!" Yuugi cried, even as Yami pulled him back again. "Wait, wait, we're forgetting something here. I mean… okay, even if we did this and destroyed the world and… everything… You kids are still in there. This could fry your brains, leave you brain dead!"

"Actually, aibou, given the magical influence here," Yami murmured, eyeing him carefully, "I think their bodies would be protected. It would just take out anything connected to that world. It would probably fix them, and as long as I shielded them, I think they'd be fine."

"Even Flamon-san?" he demanded. "He's living data right now! He has no physical body!"

That stopped Kouji, whose head cocked like a dog at attention. "_What?_"

Yuugi, in turn, latched onto that attention like a drowning man. "A few hours ago—or, I guess, days in your world—Flamon-san completely changed form. His physical form has dispersed, he mainly exists in your world alone, right now," he said, then looked back at Yami. "If we destroy the Digital World and everything connected to it, we'll destroy him. You can't shield what you can't see."

Yami grimaced, his eyes narrowing at Yuugi's imploring gaze, and they could all see him start to sway. Kaiba, however, only folded his arms and said, "You of all people, _Yami Motou_, should know that sometimes sacrifices have to be made."

"Sacrifices like this are only ever made because people haven't looked hard enough for another solution!" Yuugi argued. "We found another one then, we can now, too! Kouji-kun," he added, turning back to the twins, "You will lose Flamon-san forever. Even if we somehow managed to bring him back to this world after the Digital World was lost, he's so entwined with it right now that none of us can guarantee he'll be even close to the person he was. He could wind up with a whole new personality _at best_."

Kouji just frowned at him, clearly caught. "_But… Takuya's human. He… he can't just… stop existing._"

"_Not logically, no,_" Kouichi said meaningfully, and Kouji glanced at him. He scowled back. "_This isn't just logic and what makes sense, Kouji. Think about what this is. All the people that will be destroyed if this world is erased. Can you really do that?_"

"_But…_" He continued staring for a moment, then stumbled, and his brother had to catch him to keep him upright. "_It doesn't make sense._"

"I don't care if it makes sense," Kaiba snapped, and he strode around the desk, only pausing to glare at Yuugi, and then harder at Mokuba. "Noah should have been destroyed ten years ago, and every day it's allowed to continue, this nonsense drags my company's name through the dirt. I am shutting this off as soon as I can. No questions, and no objections."

"Seto!"

"Big Brother!"

"Shut up!" he ordered, then stormed out, shoving Jounouchi and Anzu out of the way as he went. He slammed the door behind him, and they all looked around at each other again.

"I… getting rid of the Digital World makes sense," Anzu said awkwardly, "but we can't do that if the kids won't get out safely. We can't be responsible for destroying a sixteen year old's life."

"If he survives, which is in serious doubt, by the sound of it," Mai pointed out, and Kouji made a weak noise, gripping Kouichi's hand on his arm.

"It… it'll take him an hour or two to fully charge and direct the electromagnetic pulse at the right part of the system," said Mokuba, and he hesitated, then hurried around the desk to Kaiba's computer and began typing before he even sat down. "Right now, because the data—you guys—are talking to us, the two worlds are in sync, but I can make it so that you're sped up again, faster than we can really track. That means you'll have, um… maybe two, three days before the magnet hits. Can you fix this before then?"

"_Fix what?_" Kouichi demanded. "_You've just spent the last hour telling us that we're basically playing parts in repeated history! What can we possibly do to fix this?_"

"Change the story," Jounouchi said blankly, and then looked at Yuugi and Yami. "We changed a copy of the past once and that altered the present. If you can do the same, somehow… I dunno, make an alternate ending… flash bang, problem solved."

Yami paused, considering, then nodded. "Even if you don't completely solve the problem of corruption, you can at least change enough to alter the outcome. Either yourselves or the world. You might be able to avoid this."

"I can probably distract Seto," Anzu offered. "Maybe extend your time a little longer."

"I'll help. Frustrating Kaiba-boy is always good for a laugh," Mai said, flicking her hair over her shoulder. "And I did my stint on the side that wants to destroy worlds a good ten years ago, thanks. Call this belated penance."

"Great. Come on," she said, and hurried out the door. Mai hesitated just long enough to catch a kiss from Jounouchi before hurrying out after her, and Mokuba went back to furiously typing.

But Kouichi just ran a hand back over his hair and looked back at Yuugi, frustrated. "_I don't know what we can possibly do. If we destroy Fiiru, the last part of the war between human and computer, then what? It instead becomes a war in ourselves. Kouji can barely function as it is – I don't see how we can fix this!_"

They all frowned, with Yuugi and Yami looking at each other for a long moment, until Yami's eyes narrowed, and he reached up to push Yuugi's forelocks away from his eyes.

"Sacrifices are made when you don't look hard enough for another solution," he said quietly, then tapped Yuugi's forehead and looked back at the twins. "You have to stop making sacrifices. Stop fighting the war. Find a compromise."

"_Compromise?_" he asked, and Yami nodded.

"Darkness and light will always fight one another… until they realise they can't exist without each other. You have to do the same here," he said, and offered up a small smirk. "Find and create a balance. That's when things really begin to change."

"And you better do it soon," Mokuba said firmly, finally looking up from the laptop. "Or else the Digital World and your friend aren't going to exist long enough to do it on their own."

* * *

><p>[<em>Program Err-r-r-r-<em>]


	26. The space between reasons and reason

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Five

_**The space between reasons and reason**_

**TRUFAX:** Seriously, though, how did the various world governments cover up DOMA? We know they acknowledged it happened, because, you know – American government rescuing the group. But next arc, no one seems to care that the world almost ended. What happened, there?

* * *

><p>A strong breeze kicked up as they switched off the Duel Mat, whipping Kouji's hair up and away from his eyes as he walked over to the cliff edge and sat down, staring at the trailmon tracks below.<p>

They had two days to save everything.

Two days before… Takuya…

"Kouji?" Kouichi stepped up behind him and knelt down, leaning forward to try and see his face. "Kouji, can you hear me?"

"Of course I can," he said, but couldn't quite get the proper amount of disdain. He was too preoccupied. He knew, in the same way he knew the real world had a blue sky and that grass was green, that Kaiba's solution was a good one. This wasn't a real world and they didn't belong to it. Deleting it was right. And, as he said, sometimes sacrifices were necessary, so… so even if Takuya was more digimon than human right now, it was… it was a logical, simple solution.

Kouichi paused for a long moment, then sat down beside him and set his elbows on his knees, just watching his brother. After another minute, he asked, "What are you going to do?"

"Hm?"

"Do you want to get everyone out, ready for Kaiba's attack?" he asked. "Or should we try and stop the war?"

Kouji blinked and furrowed his brow, then looked at him blankly. Kouichi sighed.

"I know you're not thinking very well right now, and I probably won't like what you're about to tell me," he said. "But whatever you decide… I'll support you."

"But… what about Takuya?" he asked, and Kouichi frowned.

"I don't know. Maybe this would be what he wanted. To go down with the ship, and all," he said, though his eyes were hard. "Or maybe he might survive. He'll be different, but he'll survive."

Kouji looked back down at the tracks again, gripping the cliff edge so hard the dirt crumbled. "That's true…"

He was right. It might be what Takuya wanted. And if it wasn't, well, then, at least Kouji would have Takuya. Completely human and… there. But… it was just…

That wasn't enough.

The thought hit hard enough that he literally flinched, and a stabbing pain followed after, making his left eye wince. He could almost feel it reverberating in his head; the realisation that Takuya's _survival_ wasn't good enough screaming through his skull like a siren. It wasn't enough for Takuya to be alive. And it wasn't about need, or what had to happen.

It was about want.

That was an emotion, he realised blankly. He was upset. Irrationally upset, because Takuya had the possibility of surviving, and he would be fine, in the real world, just like Kouji had planned.

But for Kouji, in his heart, he knew… Takuya just being alive wasn't good enough.

He slowly looked up, then around at his brother, who was still watching him warily. They just gazed at each other for a moment, before Kouji suddenly stood up and pulled out his digivice, which made Kouichi frown even deeper.

"Kouji…? What are you doing? Beowulfmon wasn't a great idea last time… I don't see how –"

"_Beast Spirit Evolution_!"

* * *

><p>For all that Hiisutori had told them, before flying off in a whirlwind of paper that slipped through the barely-open doors, there was one thing he hadn't mentioned.<p>

"What happened to Ophanimon and the others?" Tomoki had asked blankly, and Junpei had just stared back, suddenly realising that had been one of their pressing questions, before.

Izumi and Takuya had disappeared shortly after Hiisutori, though they'd gone in opposite directions. Junpei and Tomoki, on the other hand, had kept to their seats in order to fully process the information, talking quietly in order to confirm things with each other. With that thought, however, they stood up and looked around.

"I thought they were supposed to be in the Citadel somewhere. I thought Hiisutori would let them go when the barrier went down," Junpei murmured. "But either he hasn't, or…"

"We should go find them," Tomoki said firmly. "Ophanimon has knowledge of this world we could only dream of. Maybe she can give us some idea of how to change the story."

"Good idea. Now… as for where…"

It didn't take long for them to reach the huge chamber that had once held Seraphmon, when Cherubimon had been corrupted and sealed him away. But this time, there were no hanging prisons, and the room looked much more like a storage hall, lined with crystalline tables and stacked chairs. But they still walked through it, frowning at their surroundings.

"Seems much more like a real castle this time, huh?" Junpei murmured. "Like people really live here."

"Mm… so… if it's a real castle… maybe it has dungeons?" Tomoki suggested, and Junpei nodded, jerking his thumb toward the far wall.

"Down where we caught the Trailmon, maybe."

As they neared the far wall, it melted away, leaving behind the hidden stone and wooden door that would take them to the lower levels. As they stepped through, Junpei trailed his hand along the crumbling walls, but his eyes soon unfocussed, as he found himself thinking back over everything they had learned that day.

"Hey, Junpei?"

He flinched back to reality, and then peered over his shoulder to where Tomoki was walking a few steps behind. "What?"

"Are you in love with Izumi?"

"Wha-!" He stumbled on the steps, but once he recaught his balance, he stopped and whirled around to gape at him. "What does that have to do with anything?"

He just blinked back. "I was just wondering."

"You weirdo. What kind of a question is that at a time like this?" he asked, setting his hands on his hips. "I've always loved Izumi, you know that."

"Even now? After everything we found out about Takuya and her?"

He pulled back again, frowning. "Th-that was just because of the corruption. Because she couldn't fight her hormonal urges and neither could he!"

"So you're not upset?"

"W- I – it –" He spluttered for another few moments, then stamped his foot. "Why are you asking?"

"Well… mostly, I think, it's because I'm thinking a little too much about everything right now," he said, looking off to the side. "Even though I know it's a horrible question, I think it's important to know. I mean… you've always said you love her, but you never actually said why, which, when we think about it in terms of everything that's been happening lately, makes me think… maybe… you know… you might just be saying it."

"That's ridiculous! I don't have to have a reason to love her!"

"Really?" he asked, blinking. "But I know why I like all my friends."

"This is different!"

"If you say so," he said, but still tilted his head in question. "It's just, you know, since Hiisutori said you and me were becoming more logical, rather than emotional, I'm wondering if… well…"

For a long moment, Junpei just stared at him, but his mind was making the same connections as Tomoki. He'd always known he wanted to be Izumi's boyfriend. That first day on the train, he'd thought she was beautiful, and since then, she'd always been the girl he liked best. It logically followed that he would be in love with her. So – _was_ it real love, or just what should be?

"It – why are you asking all of a sudden?" he asked mulishly, trying to avoid his own thoughts. "What's it got to do with Ophanimon?"

"Nothing. It's just… we're thinking logically right now," he pointed out, and then gestured back up the stairs. "Izumi and Takuya aren't. That's why what happened, happened between them, and not you. Or Kouji," he added awkwardly, still uncomfortable.

"Yeah, and?"

"If you and Izumi are thinking in totally different ways, on totally different sides… how are you ever supposed to be together?" he asked, linking his fingers together. "How can you have a real future, or even an ending, if you can't meet in the middle?"

Junpei continued frowning at him for a few moments, then took a step toward him. "Considering everything Hiisutori told us an hour ago… is this a metaphor?"

"Probably," he agreed, then blinked and smiled. "Or it's just that I've always thought you guys were supposed to live happily ever after, and this is the most sensible way for you to get there."

He snorted despite himself, and reached out to clap Tomoki on the shoulder. "Either way, I get your point. Hey, are you okay to keep looking for the Angels on your own? I think I need to go talk to Izumi."

"Sure," he said, smiling as Junpei hurried past him. Once he disappeared back through the doorway, Tomoki turned back to the stairs, his smile fading. With a breath, he began descending deeper, hoping to find something that might actually help.

* * *

><p>"Hey, Izumi! Izumi, where are you?"<p>

"Junpei?" a slow voice asked, and he turned back to see Neemon poking its head out of one of the huge crystal doors he'd ignored on his way past.

He smiled and walked back. "Hey, Neemon. I'm looking for Izumi, have you seen her?"

"We're talking about old times," it said, and opened the door further so Junpei could see inside. The room was a strange cross between an indoor garden and a sitting room, with nice plush furniture arranged around potted plants and a huge, glittering fountain in middle of the room. Izumi was sitting on the edge of the fountain, with Bokomon beside her, though she looked up as Junpei stepped inside.

"Junpei…"

"Hey, I was wondering if I could talk to you," he said awkwardly, then added, "Sorry to interrupt."

"No, no… it's okay, we were just…" She lowered her gaze to the fountain and ran her fingers across the water. "Just remembering things."

"Oh yeah?"

"That's right!" Bokomon announced, leaping to its feet and pointing to the ceiling. "Remembering the glorious battles and why they inspire thousands of digimon today! Mmm, such grand history should be revered! And remembered and reconstructed in glorious full colour with narration worthy of its meaning, if not its truth!"

Junpei just stared at the little digimon for a few moments, while Neemon clapped lamely. Izumi smiled and shrugged. "We started off talking about how we could change history, and it sort of spiralled."

"Huh," he said blankly, and then took another step closer, pushing his fingertips together. "Actually, Izumi, that's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about, too. See, Tomoki had this crazy idea, and I guess it kinda makes sense, so I figured I might run it by you and see what you think."

"Me?"

"Yeah…" He hesitated another moment, then huffed out a breath and moved forward, sitting down on Bokomon's other side with his hands laced between his knees. "And I guess we probably should talk anyway."

She blinked, then blushed and turned away. "About… what happened in the temple?"

"What you – what _we_ said," he corrected. "What we maybe should have said a long time ago."

"Who said what?" asked Neemon, but the humans ignored it and Bokomon hissed for silence, looking between them curiously.

They sat in silence for a long minute, until Izumi turned a little away, tightly folding her hands in her lap, and Junpei looked up at the ceiling to avoid her.

"I wanted to come in here and make this speech," he said finally. "I've been planning it for years, you know? About how – how I was always alone, until all this, and how I knew I loved you from the first second I saw you, and…"

Izumi's brow furrowed, but she stayed silent, just gripping her hands tighter still. Junpei eyed off a faceted reflection on the ceiling. "It's really deep, and emotional. It says a lot. And I always figured you'd hear it and fall for me and… that'd be it."

"I'm hoping there's a 'but' in here," she said irritably, and he bit his lip, closing his eyes with a sigh.

"But I never really thought about it from your side. I dunno, I always figured you didn't like me because I was… because I _am_ fat, or shallow, or –"

"Damn straight you are!" she exploded, causing Bokomon to squawk and fall back into the fountain and Junpei to flinch as she spun around. "You really think I care what _size_ you are? That all I think about in whether I love a person or not is how good I'd look on their arm? Dammit, Junpei! My whole life I've been judged on what I look and sound like! All I ever am to people is 'that pretty Italian girl'! Even here, I'm just another human! Just the most beautiful warrior! It's not about who I am or what I do – it always comes down to what I look like!"

"Izu-" he began, but she cut him off with an unconscious slashing motion that threw a wave of air in his face.

"Even you! _Especially_ you! It's always about you, and how you want me, and how you worship me, and you think I'm so great! You wanna know why Takuya and I are such good friends, Junpei?" she snapped. "It's because he tells me when I look bad! Because he thinks I worry about silly things! Because he says I'm moody and flighty and he still likes me! He knows _me_, Junpei, and that's something I don't think you've ever even tried to do! Because no one does! No one ever bothers to get to know me, Junpei, and you have no idea what that's like!"

"Of course I do!" he cried, shooting to his feet with fists clenched. "You and the others are my only real friends, Izumi! Before I met you guys, I was just fat, stupid Junpei with the magic tricks! I tried to buy friendship because I couldn't get it on my own!"

"Yes, you could have!" she shouted back, glaring at him all the more. "You just made the assumption that no one would like you for you and went with it! Just like you always do!"

"Like you can talk! Here I am trying to make this big speech and you just _assume_ what's going to come out of it!" he yelled. "What, you think I came in here after everything we've found out today and planned to sweep you off your feet like some damsel? Who's assuming things now?"

"If it wasn't that, then what was it about? Come on then, tell me!"

"I was going to say –!" He stopped, and then blinked, suddenly realising he couldn't remember. She jerked, spreading her hands in silent demand, and he immediately found himself snapping again. "I was going to say that I _do_ think you're perfect! I was going to talk about how you walk into a room and the world lights up. I was going to say that you're too sweet to even realise that the real reason you couldn't love me is because someone as great as you could never…!" He stopped, the air rushing out of him at her glare. Her beautiful, tear-stained glare that made him want to change the world to make it better, even as he knew he couldn't. "Someone as great as you could never end up with someone so hopeless as me."

"Oh, for the love of…" She touched a hand to her forehead and stood up, not in the least bit touched. "You haven't been listening. You're just confirming everything I just said. I'm not perfect, Junpei, and if you ever took the time to really get to know me –"

"And you're not listening to me," he argued. "I never said you were flawless. Just perfect."

"What's the difference?" she demanded, and he shook his head.

"You're asking me? All I know is that I think you're wonderful. That even though you're angry right now, and crying, so your eyes are all red and you're puffing your cheeks out… you're still beautiful. You're mad because you think I don't know you, but it just makes you sweeter because you don't realise that I think what I do _knowing_ your flaws." He sighed again, and shoved a hand back through his hair. "You don't realise that most of the reason I got upset the other day was because I finally accepted that you're never going to love me in spite of my flaws the way I love you for yours."

She blinked, her fists falling back to her side, and he shrugged helplessly.

"That's what I came in here to say. Because I realised that… well, Tomoki's right. I know those things. They make sense to me. But you aren't thinking with logic – you're not thinking about the fact that I've grown up beside you for the last five years and it'd be kinda hard for me not to know you. So how could you ever understand how I see it?"

For a long few seconds, no one moved or spoke. Bokomon clung to the edge of the fountain, staring between them with wide eyes, while Neemon gaped up from the floor, but the two humans just stared at each other in helpless silence. Eventually, Izumi fidgeted where she stood, rubbing her arm and then the back of her neck.

"This doesn't change anything about how I feel," she said awkwardly. "I'm not in love with you, Junpei."

"I know," he said quietly. "But in light of… well, everything… I figure we should at least try to understand where the other one's coming from."

"Takuya –"

"Takuya and I… We're… working through it already," he said, and she shifted again.

"I'm not… Junpei, I can't…"

"I know I'm not great, and I'm not asking you to even like me," he said, looking away and folding his arms again. "I know… I know you guys don't… respect me like you do Takuya or Kouji. I just… I can't see how we're supposed to change the world if we can't –"

"Shut up," she said, and snatched a handful of his jacket to pull him into a hug. "Just… just shut up."

* * *

><p>Outside, leaning back against the balcony wall, Takuya smiled and shook his head at Pipismon, flapping furiously in order to stay hovering beside him. "Now that'll make a good addition to Bokomon's stories," he murmured, and Pipismon laughed.<p>

"Good addition!"

He chuckled, then clambered up onto the railing to leap up and catch the gutter of a small roof above. He edged along, going hand over hand until he could drop onto another balcony, and then dashed across it to make a running jump down onto the platform at least ten metres away. Pipismon followed leisurely, and just smiled when Takuya rolled to his feet on the landing with an apprehensive glance over his shoulder.

He had turned human after listening to Hiisutori's speech. He shouldn't have been able to make that jump.

For a second, his gut twisted, before a soft breeze rustled the surrounding leaves and brushed his hair across his forehead. He closed his eyes and breathed in the knowledge it brought with it – stories of a rain to the south and a cold day tomorrow. He let it out just as smoothly, and opened his eyes to gaze out at the cherry sunset.

He knew, in an abstract kind of way, that he should think about what Junpei said, and everything Hiisutori had told them, and come up with some solutions. And he was worried about everything, but… thinking up a plan that might not even work seemed kind of pointless.

"That's what you're supposed to be for, Kouji," he muttered. "Get over your angst and come back already…"

But even as he said it, it hurt a little, because he knew there was a chance that Kouji might not come back. And even if he did, they might not be able to work together. After all, _Takuya_ was still mad about… well… everything, and no way he could hold a grudge—or a sulk—like Kouji could.

"But Takuya-han, hmm…! He seems so changed!" Pipismon quoted, and Takuya glanced up at it again.

"Bokomon's worried about me, huh? And you?"

It circled his head twice, then fluttered away, watching him closely. He hesitated, then quickly glanced around to make sure there was no one there. That confirmed, he pulled off his jacket, and then yanked his shirt up and over his head. He kept his eyes closed for a second afterward, delaying the inevitable as he finished pulling the shirt off his hands and dropped it. But eventually he couldn't put it off any longer, and looked at his hands, and the short, sharp claws that had taken the place of his nails. He bit his lip, feeling it pinch between the longer canines he'd been ignoring, and twisted his arm the better to see the dusky markings etched across his bicep like a tribal tattoo. A glance at his chest showed a similar marking as his arms, leading down past his belt line and no doubt further still.

He closed his eyes again, and slowly let himself drop to his knees.

Honestly, he wasn't sure what he was upset about. It wasn't the changes; they felt… familiar. Comforting. Like they were supposed to happen.

But something about knowing they were there, and knowing that eventually the others would find out…

"I dunno, Pipismon," he murmured, still staring at his hands. "What do you think?"

"Takuya is Takuya," Pipismon said, in the same slow tones as Neemon.

He smirked, then nodded slowly and looked up. "Guess the outsides just match the insides now. But hey – Pipismon. Let's keep this between you and me, okay? I don't want the others freaking out just yet."

"Between you and me!" Pipismon agreed, and began swooping in circles, while Takuya slowly reached for his shirt, forcing himself to think at least some of their problems through.

"Okay. So Agunimon said that anything that _could_ happen to any of us _will_ happen to me," he said, pushing his hands into the strange sleeves. "That means we can cut it off from the others. So even if they decide I'm a lost cause, I can still keep them safe. Even if Kouji can't handle being around me now, I can still… I can still fix him, right?"

"Right?"

He pulled his shirt on properly, but otherwise remained as he was, watching Pipismon play in the air currents until he felt the vague presence of someone behind him. He turned and raised his eyebrows as Sorcerymon came to a stop a few metres back. "Hey, Sorcerymon…"

"Great Fighter, forgive my intrusion, and my presumption," he said, eyeing him from under his hat. "But you seem tired. We have chambers prepared for you, if you would take rest."

"Take rest…? What, you mean sleep?"

"I do. We also have food, if you have appetite."

Takuya frowned. "I… I'm kinda waiting for…" He stopped, then grimaced and clambered up to his feet. He had to remember that Kouji might not be coming back this time. "I guess some food wouldn't hurt. Lead on, mon."

He nodded, gesturing with his staff, but then turned on his heel and led the way back into the Citadel and castle, with Takuya and Pipismon following behind. The sunset glinted red against Takuya's eyes, and a breeze pushed him onward an extra step, unconsciously hunching his shoulders under the knowledge that a storm was coming.

Maybe, he thought as he followed Sorcerymon inside, it was time he started preparing for it.

* * *

><p>"Aibou?"<p>

Yuugi turned slightly as Yami stepped into the room, but didn't move from the window, gazing down at the duel monsters on the streets below. Without another word, Yami slowly stepped up beside him, his eyes on the dark sky, and the magic he could feel gathering.

"I don't know how Seto and Honda-kun can spin this," Yuugi said quietly. "Look at it. It's Doma all over again. But more destructive."

Yami bobbed his head in silent agreement. It was raining fire. That didn't get explained away with a press conference.

"I should have been on the streets with you guys, this week," murmured Yuugi. "I could have helped."

"You would have been a target. You know Duel Monsters want your spirit," he said absently. It was a conversation they had every time something big happened, and they'd already had it earlier in the week. "You couldn't have stopped this."

"_We_ should have."

"It's not our fault. Whatever happens, it's not because of us," he said firmly, and turned to look at him directly. "We didn't ask to get involved. Not now, not ten years ago. You can't take the blame for this."

"I'm not taking…" Yuugi trailed off, and then folded his arms, shifting his weight to a steadier stance. "Who should take blame? Noah, for wanting his father's approval? Seto, for being better? Whose fault is it?"

"That's not –"

"I know it's not what you meant, but you know that wasn't what I meant, either," he said, and glanced at him before gesturing to the streets. "It's not our fault, but we are involved. And we should take responsibility. We shouldn't just… we can't just expect the kids to solve things we couldn't and then take away everything that's important to them because we don't think they're doing it right."

"So you'll risk the world?" he asked. "You said it, aibou, this is just like Doma, but more destructive. Buildings are being ruined, people are dying. And these digital monsters will only make things worse, if they make it here."

Yuugi nodded. "And here we are, just waiting to see how it ends."

Yami frowned at him, and it only deepened as Yuugi abruptly turned away from the window and strode over to the desk, snatching Kaiba's duel disk from beside the laptop on his way past. "What are you doing?"

He didn't answer, still walking toward the door and strapping the disk into place. Before he could get to the door, Yami ran after him and snatched his bicep, yanking him back.

"You are not going out there. Those are illegal cards! They're broken! Literally designed to be unbeatable. And you are the biggest target to every Duel Monster that knows who I am!"

He spun around to face him, finally meeting Yami's gaze and making him blanch at the tears in them. But they didn't fall, and he only gestured back to the window. "I am not giving up on those kids. I'm not gonna stand by and wait for Seto to do what we've spent over ten years protecting our own world from. I'm _not_," he said firmly, and pulled his arm free. "There are people out there who need help, and those kids need every chance they can get to keep these worlds apart. I am going to help them."

"Aibou…" Yami reached up, but didn't touch, and then sighed, letting his arm drop. "I can't stop you."

"No," he agreed, but smiled as he took Yami's hand in his own. "But you can help me."

"Struggle to keep you alive, you mean," he muttered, but allowed himself to be pulled out of the office and toward the elevator.

* * *

><p>It should have been a beautiful night, as darkness fell around them. Little digimon were running around, collecting berries, leaves and roots; the wind rustled gently through the trees, and the air was pleasantly warm even as the sun went down.<p>

Not that they had time to notice.

"Back off! We don't have time for you!"

Weregarurumon just laughed as Kouichi yelped, having to drop to the ground to avoid the swipe of his claws. "As if I care what you have time for! _Kaiser Nail!_"

"Kouji!" Kouichi shouted, rolling away from another attack. "Kouji, where are you?"

On the other side of one of the massive trees, Kouji rolled his eyes and bit back the first thing to come to mind. After running all day as Garmamon, and still exhausted from the fight with Puraido, he'd de-evolved so they could eat something and rest up for a few hours. It was at that point that a gang of idiot digimon passed by and decided human data was too valuable to pass up.

Again, still exhausted from everything that had happened, Kouji hadn't dodged fast enough, and wound up pinned to a tree by a bunch of icicles shot by Icedevimon. He was counting himself lucky that another digimon, dressed completely in leather except for his mask and hair, intervened to beat the all-living heck out of the ice-type, proclaiming Kouji 'his' prey.

He grunted, trying to yank his arm away from the tree, but all he managed to do was tear the cuff of his jacket, releasing his hand a single centimetre. "Dammit… still stuck…"

"Kouji!" Kouichi shouted again, but anything more was cut off as Weregarurumon suddenly kicked out with his leg, catching Kouichi in the stomach and throwing him back against the ground. Once he was down, the digimon slammed his foot over Kouichi's chest, pinning him in place.

"Poor, stupid human! So weak, for all your power!" he crowed. "But I'll tell you what: I'm a nice guy. Give me the bag and I'll let you go free."

"Yeah, like we believe that!" Kouji shouted, though he was still watching Icedevimon and the one he didn't recognise duke it out a few metres away.

Weregarurumon ignored him, smiling at Kouichi, as charming as a giant werewolf with always-visible pointed teeth could manage. "Don't you know? My line of evolution is descended from the same line as the Warrior of Light. We're practically related," he said, and extended a hand as if in offering. "You can trust me. Just give me the human objects and everything will be fine."

Kouji scowled, tugging at his bindings again, but Kouichi openly snarled. "You are _not_ related to my brother!"

"What?"

He clutched at the shadows beneath his fingers and then slashed up, the dark darts still in his hand slicing into Weregarurumon's thigh and forcing him to fall back. "Get _off_ me!"

"What the –!"

"_Dark Dart_!" he yelled, and Weregarurumon howled as they thudded against his armour.

Like flicking a switch, the other two digimon stopped their fight, and hurried over to see Kouichi scramble to his feet, darkness licking up his sides. "That…"

"Power…" the second digimon hissed. "Human power…"

He flinched, spinning around to face them, and his hand twitched for a spear. "Th-that's right! You think we're easy targets or something? We're the Warriors of Light and Darkness! You can't hope to take us both on!"

Kouji inwardly groaned, then began yanking at his bindings harder than ever. That sort of reasoning worked against intelligent opponents. These were power-mad idiots. Powerful darkness or not, unless he got some kind of weapon in the next minute, Kouichi was about to get his butt kicked.

"We've returned to battle the haato," Kouichi continued, though the drama of it was lessened slightly when Icedevimon snorted.

"You think we believe fairytales?"

"Why else would we be back?" he snapped, drawing himself up taller, even as he continued staring around for a branch or something. "We've defeated nine of the ten haato. As 'poor, stupid humans'! Do you really think you can stand up to us for long?"

The leather-bound digimon leaned back a little, long claws rising to warily finger the guns on his thighs, and Weregarurumon actually took a step back, but Icedevimon giggled again.

"Well, I don't know about that, but it'll be fun to find out!"

"Hey, hold on," Weregarurumon said quickly. "What if he's not bluffing?"

"What about it?"

"You can't attack a Legendary Warrior!" he cried. "They're heroes!"

Icedevimon only grinned wider, wings flaring as he stepped forward. "I want to. I want to see what's so great. I want… I want the power…!"

"Power is one thing," the leather-bound digimon said slowly, "but I ain't so big on gettin' digitised just because you bite off more than you can chew. Ain't you read the stories? They purify digimon into digieggs!"

"There's no point in living if you're going to live weak!" Icedevimon announced, and raised his arm, claws glinting in the fading light. "_Frost_ –!"

The attack was cut short as Kouji finally wrenched his arm free with a shout, and snatched his digivice out of his pocket. "_Beast Spirit Evolution_!"

"Oh, crap," the leather bound digimon said, as Weregarurumon stumbled back, horror-stricken. That was all any of them had time for, before Garmamon dropped to the ground behind them, blade-wings already raised at the ready and snarling.

"You wanted human power?" Kouichi asked. "You're about to get it."

"This is your _only_ warning," growled Kouji. "Leave. Now."

Weregarurumon nodded quickly, already backing up. "Yessir! Beezelmon, let's go."

After a moment's hesitation, the leather-bound digimon nodded as well, and began running after his friend, into the woods. Icedevimon, however, only smiled even wider, arm still raised at the ready.

"Alright, alright, alright…! All that power is gonna be mine!"

"Kouichi. Use the ice," Kouji ground out, before lifting himself up onto his wheels and blasting forward.

The first time they had come to the digital world, Icedevimon had been a mass-murdering psychopath who had wandered the land, destroying data just so he could absorb it. It seemed that purification and time hadn't changed him much. But against two legendary warriors, the fight still didn't last long.

Having returned to human form to purify the data, Kouji watched in silence as Icedevimon appeared on his digivice, then sighed and sank to the ground, propping his elbows on his knees and groaning into one hand.

"I know we have to get back to the citadel, but I don't think I'm up to it tonight."

"Are you okay? Two fights and running for most of the day, carrying me…" Kouichi frowned as he leaned over him. "And you still haven't slept. And you're still recovering from Labu."

"I'm just tired. I think Labu's data was actually keeping me going most of yesterday," he said with a grimace. "But I'm done. Do you think you can handle the fire stuff?"

"Sure," he said, and handed over one of the melting icicles. "For a Licht Seibar if you need it."

He snorted, but took the offer before sinking back even further to lie in the damp grass. By the time Kouichi came back and had managed to get the fire going, he was drifting in and out of consciousness, half-dreaming about life back in the real world.

Just simple things. Teaching Tomoki kendo, learning how to cook from Izumi, Junpei tutoring him in maths only to realise he barely understood the material himself… Dinners with Kouichi and his mother… hanging out with Takuya for hours on end… he shut his eyes tighter and tried to lose himself in the memories, clinging to how they felt, rather than what he thought about them.

"Hey, Kouji…?"

The feeling of being crushed under a dog pile of Junpei, Tomoki and his brother faded, and Kouji slowly opened his eyes to see the violet sky above. He sighed and tilted his head to look at Kouichi. "Hm?"

"You didn't answer me, this morning," he said quietly. "I know it probably made sense to you, but beast evolution doesn't actually tell me what ending we're making for this world."

"No," he agreed. "But it should tell you I haven't given up."

He tilted his head curiously, and Kouji sat up, pulling himself closer to the fire. "I'm not as far gone into logic as I sounded, this morning. If I was, then Kaiba's solution—destroying this world and all digital traces—should be the best option. It makes perfect sense. We'll all come out of it alive, even Takuya, and we'll never have to deal with this world again."

"But?"

"But Yuugi pointed out the risk: Takuya might not be the same again. None of us will be. We'll be alive, but… Takuya had it right when he said that this world is a part of who we are. It made us the people we are now. If you take it away, what's left?" he asked. "Takuya's fire, your passion, Junpei's strategies… they may not have come from here, but they developed here. Take it back to basics, and we're just… we're stupid kids, the same as everyone else. And I don't want that."

He furrowed his brow, not really following, and Kouji smiled.

"I don't _want_ it; that's the important thing. Want is an emotion. It's not logical. That's why I can still turn into Garmamon. Why I can still access the emotional part of this world. I can still feel," he said firmly.

"Okay," Kouichi said slowly. "That's… great, because it means we're not going to destroy the digital world, but… why? You're not all machine, great; I don't see how that makes a solution."

"We're where we are now because we were heading in that direction: all emotion or all logic," he said, and gestured between them. "The six of us were the catalyst that began changing the digital world, and it's because we stopped functioning safely that the barrier between worlds began to fail. There's some kind of door—the gateway the haato were looking for—and we're what supports it. If we fall down, so does it, and all bets are off. Noah—or whatever's left of him—gets to the real world and reshapes it as he wants."

"So… we have to be stable for the gateway to remain closed," he surmised, and Kouji nodded.

"It's difficult to explain. But I just have this… feeling that if we can get ourselves to a workable facsimile of normal—if me, Junpei and Tomoki can focus on our emotions while the rest of you can think logically—we can fix things," he said, and reached out to grab a small log from the fire, holding it up to look into the flames. "And there's more. Something Puraido said, before you beat him."

"Hm?"

"Fiiru… the one who looked like Yami. He's the real danger. He's the Lucemon this time around. The Noah," he said. "And Puraido said that our only chance to beat him is to work together."

"Teamwork, huh? Just like old times?" Kouichi smiled, resting his head on his palm. "You sound like Takuya."

Kouji narrowed his eyes, then nodded and put the log back down. "Good."

* * *

><p><em>[_ _ _]<em>


	27. Fear

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Six

_**Fear**_

**TRUFAX:** I keep forgetting what day it is and skipping weeks. This is particularly annoying, given how close we are to the end…

* * *

><p>Granted, the last time he'd been here and walked these corridors, he'd been led by Sorcerymon, mostly going straight as they ran for their lives. But he'd never even suspected how much like a honeycomb the lower levels really were.<p>

Tomoki sighed as he pushed open another door to find another empty stone room. He wasn't sure if these corridors were supposed to be a maze or something… maybe a dungeon… but either way, it was becoming fairly depressing. Every hallway led to an empty room. Every room led to another hallway. If it weren't for his digivice and its map capabilities, he would have long since given up for fear of being lost.

"Of course, I think I'm lost anyway," he muttered.

He could barely remember what he was supposed to be looking for. The longer he walked, the less likely it seemed that Ophanimon or the others would be down here – they were all bright, beautiful angels who lit up any place they went. It didn't seem possible for them to be in a place like this.

He lifted his digivice and stared at the screen for a few seconds, then brought it close to his lips. "Ophanimon? Seraphmon? Can anyone hear me? Cherubimon? Hello?" He fell back against the wall with a heavy breath. "Anyone? Kouji? I could really use your help…"

"Alone, little one?"

He flinched and spun around, but although the voice had definitely come from behind him, there was no one there. He frowned, straightening his shoulders before slowly creeping back toward the last corner. No one there, either…

"Not so little any more, though. You'll be taller than Takuya in a few years."

He twisted as soon as the first words were spoken, but there was no one further down the hall. Not even any doorways for the voice to be coming from.

"Where are your friends?"

"Where are you?" he shot back, gripping his digivice tighter. "Who are you?"

"Angemon. The next level of Patamon."

He frowned, backing up against the wall. He doubted that. Something about this voice told him it wouldn't hesitate to hurt him.

"You didn't answer my question."

"You didn't answer mine, either," he snapped. "Where are you? Show yourself."

The voice just chuckled, and Tomoki hesitated, then sidled a few steps sideways before hurrying back the way he'd come. Bravery in the face of the unknown was one thing – stupidity was another, especially when he had three good, powerful friends upstairs.

"Oh, I see. Well, you run on and get them. I'm sure that will help you against the voices."

He stopped for a moment, as the implications of an invisible voice made him think of craziness. But then he remembered he was in the digital world and hurried onward. Crazy had its own definition here.

"Ah, right. You're the smart, dependant one. Forgive the assumption, I'm afraid I just don't really care. You want to turn left, by the way," the voice said as he came upon an intersection. With the advice in mind, Tomoki slid around the corner to the right, but the voice continued, just as audible as ever. "I admit I've never really paid that much attention to you. You were obvious. A child. You're afraid of being alone. Simple, really."

"Angemon, huh?" he ground out. "Yeah, that sounds in-character for him."

The voice chuckled. "Turn left this time."

Again, he turned right at the intersection, watching the compass on his digivice and wishing he could remember which way the stairs were.

"Thirteen years old. The first year of the great turning point between child and adult. Children run from their fears, and I suppose you thought that you learned not to. But you didn't. Not really – you faced a flaw in your personality and defeated a digimon. That had nothing to do with fear. Oh, and fair warning for your last chance: go straight at the next intersection."

There was no turn directly ahead, so he tried to ignore the voice, even as it continued.

"It was very courageous, I'll grant that. But what I've realised, over the years, is that none of you faced a fear. Not really. Which is where I come in, isn't it?"

Finally, it seemed, the voice had fallen silent, and Tomoki set his jaw as he noticed a side corridor up ahead. Go straight like hell. He clutched at the brickwork to spin himself around, only to trip over his feet as he realised what he'd turned into.

The dungeon passage.

Cells stretched out along the corridor, lit by glowing torches that flared to life every few steps he took. He couldn't see the end of the hall, but he smirked, clutching his digivice tight to his chest. Go straight, huh? And now he'd found what he was looking for.

"I suppose you have," the voice commented, and this time Tomoki flinched because it didn't come from directly into his ear. It echoed quietly, clearly having come from the dark end of the hall, where he couldn't see. "Forgive me again. I thought you wanted to get out and find your friends. But you _were_ searching for the Great Angels, weren't you?"

A loud bang crashed, and Tomoki yelped as he spun around. A door that hadn't been there before had slammed shut behind him, and there was no handle on this side. He swallowed, backing away from it slowly, but when the voice didn't speak again, he turned around, watching the cells and the darkness for some kind of movement.

Nothing.

There was nothing there.

Cautious, he flicked his wrist to summon his digicode and scanned it, evolving into Chakmon without a word. Once he had his blaster, he hitched it into place and began walking forward, taking comfort in the squeak of his boots as he peered into each dark cell.

"Two cells ahead. On the left," the voice advised, and Chakmon paused, then nodded once and continued walking. The voice scared him, but it hadn't done anything to hurt him yet, and if he'd learned anything in this world it was to judge actions, not impressions.

The voice chuckled again, as if it found something amusing in his thoughts, but he ignored it as he crept up to the cell it had mentioned.

Then he stopped.

He didn't recognise the digimon inside, but he could guess. It was a huge rabbit wearing cargopants, with guns on its arms. He could guess it was Cherubimon, unevolved. More horrifying was the black sword through its chest, pinning it to the wall. Digimon didn't have blood, and couldn't die, but Tomoki didn't think he'd ever seen anything look so not-alive…

"The sword of concealing light," the voice said calmly. "Quite a useful spell, though not without its flaws."

Chakmon could swear his neck creaked as he peeked over his shoulder to the cell behind. A cat wearing thick gloves, with a ring on its tail, was lying flat on the floor, another sword punched through its back. The cell beside that one had Angemon against the wall, the sword through his neck.

"No…"

"The difference between Duel Monsters and their effects in this world are remarkable," the voice said, and Chakmon was too horrified to notice it coming closer. "In the human world, this card only lasts a few turns. Here… I can make the spell last forever. It's only a shame it didn't exist in the beginning. Not that I think either opponent would have used it, but just _imagine_ the possibilities…"

"I have to get them out," Chakmon whispered, and began frantically searching for a lock. He could freeze it, and then break it with a hard crack… but there didn't seem to be any locks at all. His paws twitched on his blaster, wondering if he could just attack the bars themselves.

Finally, colour caught his eye and he spun around, automatically raising his blaster until he recognised the man walking toward him.

"Yami-san?"

He smiled slightly, and Chakmon fell back a step, noting the problems with what was in front of him.

He couldn't see Yami's face properly – everything from his nose upward was in shadow, and there were only hints of his dark eyes and wild hair. He was dressed in something out of Tomoki's ancient history books, with gold and sandals and something kinda like a kilt but not. He carried a red sword in one hand that sparked with black lightning.

And he wasn't a flickering hologram.

"You're not Yami-san."

"Well done," the man said, and Tomoki recognised him as the voice. He tightened his grip on his blaster and moved back another few steps.

"Who are you? Why did you do this? The angels were supposed to be safe after Aro-"

"Hiisutori was keeping them hidden from Arogansu. He never said they would be _safe_ once that idiot was gone," he said calmly. "But you should calm down. The swords don't hurt – they keep the people out of the way. Nothing more."

"Out of the way?"

"This isn't their fight anymore," the man said. "They have no part in our battle, so I removed them from it."

"Wh- who are you?" Tomoki demanded again. "We – the only haato left is P-Puraido –"

"Destroyed," the man didn't move, but there was something that made Tomoki realise the fact annoyed him. "There are no more haato. Just Hiisutori. And me."

"So who are you?" he asked, and then cocked his blaster, struggling to look threatening as he announced, "I'm not going to ask you again!"

"Who do you think I am, Tomoki?" he asked. "You're supposed to be one of the smart ones. You're logical. Use your logic and tell me who I am."

He shook his head, squeezing the trigger. Ice shot out at the man's face, but he stepped to the side faster than Tomoki could think, and the bullets splattered harmlessly against the wall behind.

"Think about it, Tomoki. What have I been talking about this entire time? The haato were emotions, the things that made you weak. They all went before me. Why have I brought you here, where no one can hear you? Where no one can help you? You're alone, Tomoki, just like always."

He stumbled and fell back, his blaster clattering hard against the floor, as the man stepped up in front of him. Even in the light, his face was still shadowed, but everything else was in full display. His muscle, the gold, the sword… the sheer power rolling off him was just… Tomoki didn't even notice his data slipping away, leaving him human and shaking on the floor, just staring up at the image above him.

"Y-you…"

"What are you feeling now?" the man asked.

He swallowed, shaking his head. "I'm – I'm not af-fraid of –"

"In the end, no matter how many friends you made, no matter how much you learned about believing in yourself, you are alone, Tomoki," he murmured. "You accepted your flaw – you depend on others too much. You took that and wore it like a badge of friendship. You could rely on the people that cared about you, and they could do the same with you."

He nodded compulsively, but the man just smiled.

"You need them now, Tomoki," he noted quietly, lifting his sword. "But they're not here. You want to know who I am? Tell me, Tomoki: what are you feeling now?"

* * *

><p>Takuya paused as he stepped into the corridor. He'd been intending to get an early night before going after Hiisutori again tomorrow, but Junpei was leaning against the wall outside the Warrior of Fire's Chambers. He looked up at the scuff of Takuya's boots on the crystal and nodded in greeting.<p>

After a moment, Takuya nodded back and continued toward him. "Junpei."

"Hey. How you doing?"

He raised his eyebrows, surprised, but Junpei just looked back at him steadily. "All calm and collected? Not gonna bust an emotional fuse and open the door between worlds any further?"

"Oh. Nice. Tactful," he said, but smiled despite himself. "I'd almost forgotten that whole gateway thing. Checking up on it, huh?"

"Yeah, that's why I'm here," he sarcasmed, but then grinned guiltily. "Well, it kinda is. I also just wanted to see how you were doing. I was talking to Izumi, and that got me thinking about Kouji and… well… everything."

He shrugged as he stepped up beside his friend, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "I'm ticked off. I'm confused. And I don't have time to deal with his drama. I've gotta – _we've_ gotta make sure you guys are safe." He forced a smile and lifted his hands, still in his pockets, in a helpless gesture. "Worst I can do is get mad and punch the guy back, and since he's not here, it's beside the point. How're you and Izumi?"

"We're… better. I dunno, man, it's… Tomoki was asking whether I'm in love with her because I feel it, or because I just think I am, and…" He shook his head, looking away. "It's made me realise how much I really do feel for her and… and how much it hurts that she doesn't feel the same."

Takuya lowered his eyes to the floor. The friend in him wanted to say that she did – twist the truth to say the love she had for him was romantic. But the better friend in him couldn't.

"I dunno, just for so long I've told myself that she'd come around," Junpei continued wearily. "I've just _known_ it. 'Cause that's how things are supposed to go."

He looked up at that, and Junpei smiled wryly. "He might've been a psychotic ball of light with no sense of subtlety, but Kouji definitely said what me and Tomoki were thinking. It's weird how I never realised just how screwed up it was until he said it."

"You didn't really even get it then," he pointed out gently, lowering his eyes again, and Junpei snorted.

"Yeah, true. It was more Tomoki pointing it out today. The _thirteen_ year old giving me relationship advice," he said, and they both laughed quietly, until Junpei looked up at the ceiling, drawing a deep breath. "Is it weird that part of me wants to stay screwed up, because it's easier?"

He snorted. "I am so not the person to ask. All I can think about is right now and how it feels. Two seconds from now is too far ahead to guess at."

Watching the reflection in the floor, he couldn't see Junpei's face past his crossed arms. But somehow, Takuya knew Junpei was looking at him seriously. He rolled around to lean his shoulder against the wall beside him. "Normally I'd be having this conversation with Kouji, but… Junpei, you gotta promise me something."

"Yeah?" he prompted.

"I need you to take care of them," he said firmly, still not looking up. "Tomoki, Izumi, Kouichi… I need you to watch out for them. Don't let them do stupid shit. Don't let them freak out when it gets dark."

Junpei frowned, turning his head a little further to look at him. "This sounds an awful lot like a goodbye, Takuya."

He didn't answer straight away, still staring at the floor, before abruptly raising his head to meet Junpei's gaze. "You guys can't trust me to take care of you, anymore. So I need to trust that you'll take care of them."

"Takuya…"

"Please, Junpei," he said. "Don't let Tomoki feel alone. Don't let Izumi or Kouichi hate themselves. Don't let Kouji fall apart. And don't you ever think they don't need you. No matter what happens, promise me you won't."

Junpei stared at him for a long few seconds, then turned sideways to look at him properly. "What exactly do you think is going to happen? Takuya, you're the gateway. You kinda have to make it through this."

"I have to make sure _you_ all get through this," he corrected. "Promise me, Junpei."

They stood in silence for almost a minute, until Junpei lifted his chin ever so slightly. "I'll take care of them."

"And you."

"And me," he agreed, and Takuya nodded, pushing away from the wall so he could open the door instead.

"Tomorrow I'll talk to Hiisutori and figure out what we're gonna do about fixing stuff. In the meantime, I'm gonna crash. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Sure," he said slowly, but continued watching long after Takuya had disappeared inside and closed the door behind himself.

* * *

><p>With a heavy breath, Izumi slumped into the chair in front of her dresser, picking up the pretty silver brush beside it and beginning to run it through her hair.<p>

After the conversation with Junpei, Izumi had retreated to her bedroom, unable to face him when she couldn't think of anything to say. But it had been a few hours now, and she'd decided she had moped long enough. For all his hopeless looks and inelegant phrasing, his speech brought up exactly what she needed to deal with if they were going to get past this.

Ever since she'd been a little girl, she'd known she was pretty. Everyone told her. Long blonde hair, perfect pale skin, jade green eyes. It only got more pronounced when she came to Japan, and she became 'exotic'.

But it had also meant she didn't have friends. Girls were petty. Being beautiful and different automatically made her stuck-up and stubborn, even if she wasn't. She tried to be nice, but it always got shoved back in her face, until she just stopped trying. If they were going to think she was a horrible person, she was damn well going to act like one.

But then she came here, to the digital world, and met her friends.

She ran the brush through her hair one last time and then tucked the lock behind her ear.

The boys had never commented on her looks. She was just Izumi. For the first time, people her own age had gotten to know her personality. How nice she could be, and also her flaws. How much she ate, her impulsiveness, her fears… and they'd still liked her.

It had given her the confidence to go back home and make more friends. She'd stopped lashing out at the people who treated her badly, and just… took it. She'd killed them all with kindness, and it made her some more friends.

Or at least, that's what she'd called them. She wasn't sure they were really friends, so much, because… well… they didn't know _her_. Around them, she never let her temper get the better of her. Never spoke Italian without thinking. Never ate as much as she wanted. She was always perfect. Something girls aspired to be.

She was only ever herself with the boys, and even then, she was only honest with Takuya, because it was too hard to play pretend with him.

She lifted her head to look back at her reflection in the mirror.

It had been a long time since she'd been called beautiful. Now, she was 'hot', or 'gorgeous'. The girls all joked that guys only talked to them to be around her. If she hadn't been with Takuya, they teased, they'd probably hate her for taking all the boys.

_Teased_. Right.

She blinked hard, coughed, and swiped at the tears in her eyes.

It wasn't fair. She hadn't asked to be pretty, or beautiful, or hot. She always tried to be beautiful on the inside, because that was what was supposed to matter. But that felt fake, too, because she wasn't really the person she made herself out to be.

If she was honest, she wanted even more than what Junpei had said. She wanted to be loved for being a terrible, horrible person. She wanted disfiguring scars that someone would trace and kiss and say 'these are what make you perfect'. Because at least then, she would know the person really did want her for her.

"We could certainly arrange that."

She stiffened and looked around, but couldn't see anyone. She swallowed, clutching a hand to her chest, then looked back at the mirror. It hadn't sounded like her subconscious…

"The scar, I mean. Probably not in this world, but it would be easy enough in the real one."

Okay, that was definitely not her subconscious. She stayed perfectly still, eyeing the corners of the mirror in search of someone hiding in the room behind. She didn't recognise the voice, but there were a lot of digimon she didn't know, and besides – there was still a haato they hadn't met.

"Or we could cut off your hair. See how they like you bald. Or maybe use the scissors in another way. A nice, long slice down your face. Maybe blind an eye on the way down. Does that sound about right?"

Without otherwise reacting, even to words that sounded familiar—like echoes from past thoughts she'd never had—she began quietly tugging at the air around her, readying it like a whip.

"Or something more dramatic. More teenage. Go out the way they might expect. Break a mirror. Slit your wrists. Even if you survive, no one will ever look at you the same again."

Just like that, she lost her grip on the wind, shocked, but immediately snatched it up again, even as her breathing hardened. "That's a horrible thing to say."

"True, though, isn't it? No one ever looks at girls like that the same way."

"Where are you?" she demanded. "Come out and face me, you coward."

The voice chuckled. "I'm not the coward here. You're the one who can't face up to herself."

"You're not here at all if you're saying that," she shot back, and looked at herself in the mirror, trying to be more defiant and confident than she felt. She smirked at the set of her jaw and lifted her chin a little higher. "I know who I am. And I'm staring myself in the mirror right now."

"Fitting. But you prove my point by doing so. The mirror only shows what you want it to," the voice said calmly. "Or… does it?"

A dark shadow flickered at the edge of her vision, and she spun around, flinging a blast of air out behind her,but it only shoved the dresser and her bed back against the wall with a heavy double thunk. There was nothing there. She swallowed hard, turning back to the mirror, only to scream at the reflection. A dark figure leaned back against the dresser she'd just pushed back, shoulders hunched and hands propped on the top handles of the drawers.

It… it kind of looked like Anzu Mazaki, but… wrong, somehow. A darkness that wasn't in the real room hid everything above her shoulders, and she wore an elegant white robe, but there was something… disturbing about it all.

Izumi turned again, but the figure—whatever it was—was definitely only in the mirror. She stretched her fingers, weaving wind through them as she tried to work out which was the illusion. "Who are you?"

"Ophanimon."

Her head twitched, and the figure smiled, shrugging one shoulder.

"Or not. It's not really important."

"Puraido," she guessed, and the figure shook its head.

"One girl in a cast of six," it murmured. "I _know_ you. No matter how different you are, you're the same."

"What?"

"Doesn't matter what you wear, what you say, what you act like," the figure pushed off the dresser and began sauntering toward her, the shadows slipping through the room to keep the face in darkness. "None of it matters. You'll always just be the girl. To your friends, to the people you rescue… to the whole world. You're just the pretty girl."

She narrowed her eyes and shoved herself to her feet, glaring at the image. "You are not going to mess with my head. Ranamon tried it when I was eleven and it didn't work! What makes you think you can do what she couldn't?"

"Because I'm not playing mind games. I'm just stating facts," it said calmly, and came to a stop behind her. If it had really been there, she would have felt it brush her arm with every breath. "Look at yourself, Izumi, Goddess of the Cool Breeze. Look at what you're wearing. What you're so comfortable in."

Despite herself, her eyes flicked away from the figure to her clothes. The short skirt, the straps, and the cut-out chest piece. She pushed away a frown and went back to glaring defiantly.

"I didn't choose what this world dressed me in."

"But it did dress you in it. What are the boys wearing? Practical jeans. Coats, jackets. The only one wearing skin-tight anything is Takuya and the only skin he's showing is his face." The figure reached around to trace the strap that ran from her ribs, over her stomach and hips and into her skirt. The lack of touch tingled against her skin. "Because this is how the digital world sees you. How everyone sees you. It's what you'll always be. Something pretty to look at. Something to display."

Without thinking, Izumi let herself be pushed back down onto the stool, and stared at her own face. At her beautiful golden hair, and deep, exotic eyes. Her perfect pale skin, and the athletic shape of her curves. All perfectly presented in a high-necked, cut-out shirt that stopped just beneath her breasts.

She hadn't thought about it before. It was just a skirted version of what she wore as Fairymon and… and…

"I've been running around the Digital World like a stripper," she breathed. "And barely anyone looked at my clothes twice."

"Because it suits you," the figure reminded her, and she nodded.

"It does. It really does."

"It's all you are."

"It's all I'm ever going to be."

The figure smiled at her kindly, lifting a long, red-tinted sword from the shadows.

* * *

><p>One of the problems with being a pipismon, however awesome a digimon Pipismon was itself, was that pipismon did not have feet. They had sickles. And so it was impossible to stand and pretty difficult to sit.<p>

Normally, that wasn't a problem, because pipismon lived in the wildlands, where there were trees and things. But in places where human digimon nested, there weren't all that many branches or posts to hang from. But this particular Pipismon was nothing if not adaptable, and had been making do with the backs of chairs and bedposts. And honestly, if it meant it got to feast on the fruits and luxury dishes the Citadel staff cooked every night, Pipismon would happily compromise for the rest of its life.

It was chowing down on a platter of strawberries when someone entered the dining hall. At first, Pipismon didn't even look up, assuming one of its new friends had come by for a late dinner, until whoever it was sat down without a greeting.

Pipismon looked up, and then cried out, falling from its perch on a propped chair, down onto the plate of strawberries.

The young human that now sat in front of it with a horrible smile… he… he was the same one that had ordered the attack on Pipismon's family. The one that had thrown cards that exploded in blades and elements and destroyed them all, one by one. The one that had haunted Pipismon's nightmares for weeks.

"Pipismon," he greeted finally. "And here I thought we had gotten rid of you all, back in the Dark Area. Missed you, did we?"

Pipismon just stared at him, horrified. It had thought it was safe…

"But I hear you're traumatised. Can't say anything on your own. How is that working out for you?" he paused a moment, then cocked his head, as if curious by its lack of response. "Shame, really. You couldn't explain what you saw, give them prior warning. And now, even if I let you go, you won't really be able to tell anyone what you see here."

"What you see here," it parroted faintly, and the man inclined his head.

"Or will you try anyway? Warn them? Tell them I'm here? I'll even do you a favour, you can repeat this: Fiiru has come. I already have two, in a few short hours I'll have three. And that's all I'll need to claim the gateway." He sat back in the chair, head tilted slightly back as he gazed at Pipismon down his nose. "It's already most of the way open. All I have to do is take control and I'll be able to reach the other side. I'll be able to lead the digimon to the real world, and I will use them to take my rightful place."

Abruptly, the human stood up and reached out, snatching Pipismon in both hands. But instead of tearing it apart, as the little digimon almost expected, he tossed it up into the air, where its wings instinctively spread, and began to flutter.

"Go, then. Warn them. Tell them I'm coming. It will still be too late," he said. "I am going to win this. I am going to change history. I will reach the other world."

Pipismon hesitated a second, then spun in place and began flying at full speed for the doorway. But even as it went, it could hear Fiiru breathing, and his final words echoed even as Pipismon crashed through the barely open doors to the outside.

"This time, I will stay there. This time, I will be best."

* * *

><p>A clap of thunder jerked Junpei from sleep, and he coughed, banging his fist against his chest to dislodge his heart from his throat.<p>

That done, he looked at the window with a sigh and rolled his eyes, flopping back against the pillows again. Guardian of Thunder – still shocked silly by lightning at seventeen.

At least now it was just a surprise thing, rather than a quivering-heap-on-the-floor thing. But it was still a little pathetic, given his power source. He hefted himself up onto his side so he could better see the window, and raised his eyebrows at the lack of rain pounding against the crystalline glass. Thunder but no rain. Interesting.

"An electrical storm," he murmured. Funny… he didn't feel the static-tingle that he usually did when there was a lot of electricity around. Maybe the citadel was shielding them? He scrunched his nose and shoved back the covers, rolling the rest of the way out of bed so he could open the window.

Still no static. But slightly more concerning was the lack of storm. No wind, no clouds… the air was warm despite the early morning, and he could hear the lightning but not see it anywhere. He stepped out, reaching to the air in search of the electricity.

Granted, sensing elements had always been more Takuya's thing than his, but even a few days ago, he'd felt the power of electrical energy from generators, and in the real world, he'd always known when a storm was coming.

But there was nothing. It seemed like a calm, beautiful day.

He heard a door opening and looked over in time to see Takuya step out onto his own balcony, frowning at the sky. After a moment, he looked around, and Junpei gestured to the air. "You feel that?"

"No," he said, and set a hand on his hip, glancing back at the sky. "There was supposed to be a storm today. Like a real one, with wind and hail and… stuff."

He shrugged, taking his word for it. "Where's the thunder coming from?"

"The sun," he said absently, peering around at the trees. "There's lightning on the sun."

"What?" But he looked up anyway, shielding his eyes and looking just left of the morning-dull sun. Sure enough, now he was focussed on it, he could feel the crackle in the flames. But it wasn't quite right. "That's so weird."

"Egh, Digital World. Comes with the territory. You seen Pipismon?"

"Not since last night… But then, I haven't seen anyone since I went to bed," he pointed out.

"Yeah…" He hesitated, then turned around, and Junpei jumped. Now he was facing toward him, Junpei could see Takuya's bare chest under his jacket, and the dark markings etched over his skin. Black versions of Flamon's.

"Takuya…"

He flinched, then closed his eyes as if frustrated and continued turning without looking at him. "I'm gonna go find Bokomon and the others."

"Takuya."

"I'll talk to you later, Junpei," he said quickly, and disappeared back inside.

For a moment, Junpei considered rushing inside and down the hall to stop him before Takuya could leave his room. But a few seconds later, he remembered the conversation from last night and decided against it. Takuya wasn't thinking clearly at the moment, and honestly – what was he going to say? 'So I can't help but notice you're turning into freak of nature'?

He looked back up at the sky, considering, then shook his head and headed back in himself. Tomoki seemed pretty sane at the moment, and Izumi was good with emotions and stuff, even if she wasn't thinking at her clearest lately. Maybe they'd be able to…

Actually…

Had Tomoki come up from the dungeons last night?

He frowned and grabbed his clothes from the chair, shoving his feet into his sneakers as he slung the shirt over his head. He was still pulling on his jacket as he shoved his way out the door and down the corridor to Izumi's room.

"Morning Izumi!" he called, kicking against the door as he struggled with his sleeves. "Sorry to wake you up so early!"

Having defeated the jacket, he paused, gazing at his reflection in the door as he waited. No response. He thumped his fist against it.

"Hey, Izumi? Izumi, you in there?"

Still nothing. He hesitated, then gripped the door handle. "Hey, I'm coming in, okay?" he called, and winced as he opened it. "Sorry for the intrus…ion," he finished lamely, as he saw the empty room.

The bed was still made, only slightly rumpled as if she'd been sitting on it at some point. Other than that, everything was as it had been when they'd peeked inside yesterday. Which was weird. Izumi wasn't exactly the neatest person on the face of the planet.

"Izumi?" he called, one last time. "You in the bathroom, or something?"

But the door to the bath was open, and he couldn't hear any water running.

The early morning told him Izumi probably wasn't up already, but he hurried out and toward the dining hall anyway.

"Warrior of Thunder," Sorcerymon greeted, vaguely surprised as he burst in. The digimon was clearly in the midst of breakfast. He tilted his head slightly in respect. "Forgive the assumption, but might I ask you of the strange weather this morning?"

"Nothing to do with me," he said, waving it off. "You seen Izumi? Or Tomoki?"

"You are the first I've seen today," he said blankly. "Is something the matter?"

He hesitated, his hands twitching on the door. "Where's Hiisutori?"

"In his study, as always," he said, and set down the bowl of soup he was still holding. "Warrior?"

"Um… it's probably nothing," he said, stepping backward. "If you see Izumi or Tomoki, tell them I'm looking for them, okay?"

And with that, he sprinted back to the bedrooms, and the Warrior of Ice's chambers. But the warm green room was untouched, without even a cushion out of place. Junpei swallowed hard and yanked out his digivice, crushing the communicator button.

"Tomoki! Izumi! Can you hear me?" he called into it. "Guys, where are you?"

Silence answered. Not that he was really surprised – the communicators had always been flaky at best; they relied on physical proximity for a reason. But even though he knew that, the lack of response only made his mind go in scary directions.

They hadn't seen Tomoki in over twelve hours. No one had seen Izumi since she'd left him in the – the sitting room! He dashed out and down the halls, but again, an empty hall greeted him.

"Izumi," he whispered. "Izumi, where are you?"

A quiet click was his only answer, and he turned to find the door had shut behind him. He frowned at it, the situation and still rumbling thunder setting him on edge despite the bright, beautiful room. He hesitated, then walked over and tried to open the door again.

It swung without complaint.

"Huh," He grimaced, scratching the back of his head as he stepped outside. "Okay. Okay, Junpei, calm down. Alright, if Izumi and Tomoki haven't been in their rooms, and they're not eating… maybe they're still downstairs. Wouldn't be the first time we've gone without sleep, especially in this world. Just… calm down and look for them."

That done, he continued down to the dungeons, and kept his digivice out only as a compass. It was ridiculous to panic, after all. They'd beaten the haato already, Izumi hadn't had any dramas with her powers since getting here, and Tomoki was a full digimon when he wanted to be. All they were doing now was clean up, really, to make sure the story didn't continue again – they had nothing to worry about.

His footsteps echoed against the stone walls.

Really, he should be more worried about what happened when they left the digital world. They were all in pretty horrible places right now. Even if they recovered, their strongest relationships were in tatters. And their strongest member was still falling apart. How they were supposed to fix that when he kind of didn't want to be fixed…

Glancing into a side room, Junpei almost didn't see the dark figure resting against the wall. But a second after looking away, he turned back, and flinched.

The room was a small cell, lit only by a single torch near the front, so the man was nearly all in shadows. Only his long legs and the tail of his brown coat were clearly visible. But in the shadows, Junpei could kind of see a face that reminded him of Detective Honda. He hesitated, then touched the cell door as if to see better.

"Hello?"

"Yo," the figure replied warily.

"You – you're human," he realised, and the figure spread his hands.

"It'd look that way."

Junpei frowned at the strange response, then quickly looked around. "What are you doing in here?"

"Don't see how that's any business of yours."

"Yeah, right, okay. Hold on, I'll get you out," he said, clenching his fist to draw on his thunder even as he scowled at the attitude. But when he'd been calling for a full second and the electricity didn't come, he looked up at his hand, and then around at the room. He couldn't call on the thunder? What the heck was going on?

"Yeah, that was real impressive," the figure said blandly. "Can you go away now?"

"Hey, I'm trying to help you, here."

"Did I ask for it?"

He lowered his fist, forgetting that for a second, to glare at the figure. It glared back.

"You don't get the hint, do you? I don't want you to help me," he said, and stood up. "No one wants you to help them."

"Watch it, buddy, or I'll take you up on that and leave you here," he snapped, but the figure just took a few steps forward, scoffing when Junpei took one back.

"No one asked you to come down here. You just assumed I needed help. Did I ever say I did?" he asked. "When has anyone ever asked you for help?"

He pulled back, looking up and down the corridor. What was this guy even doing here?

"When has anyone ever asked you for anything?" the figure asked, and Junpei snapped.

He lifted both hands to point at the guy, gripping his digivice so tightly the edges cut into his hand. "Okay! You, I'm not helping. I don't know who you are, or what you're doing here, but I know that anyone who tries to screw with our heads in this world is a bad guy." He opened his mouth to continue, but stopped as a light sparked in his hand. He glanced at it, then smirked – a familiar glowing blue ring had formed around his left hand. "So that's why my powers weren't working. I can evolve now! _Spirit_ –!"

A sharp pain cut him off, and he choked, snatching at his stomach instead. When he looked down, it was to see a dark red blade halfway into his gut. He blinked, struck dumb by the image.

"Messier than I prefer, but it worked all the same," a new voice commented, and Junpei looked up to see the figure had changed. Now, it leaned against the open cell door, still shadowed, but now more of an image of Yami Motou, wearing white robes and an irritable expression.

"Y-you…" he coughed, and his knees gave out, slamming against the ground.

"Let me make this perfectly clear, Thunderbug," the figure said irritably. "I certainly didn't ask for your help. You assumed. Just like you assume everything. So I'm going to set you straight."

He grunted, trying to stay focussed on what he was hearing while pain spread through his torso. He gripped the sword and tried to pull it out, but the figure simply lifted one foot to push his hand down and the blade back in. Junpei retched, losing his grip on his digivice as he struggled to stay upright.

"All Kouichi has ever cared about, since before you met, is his brother. Tomoki only thinks of Takuya as an older brother – you barely register on his radar. Kouji, well, I think that's been explored well enough while you've been here, and Takuya only ever wants Kouji to help him. No one else, and especially not you. And Izumi?" The foot lashed out again, changing the angle of the blade and slamming the pain straight to Junpei's heart. "You really should have taken the hint five years ago."

A tingle, somehow sharper and more pressing than the pain, began spreading from Junpei's fingers. He lifted the hand, and watched in horrified fascination as it began to drift up and away, pixel by pixel.

The figure reached down and yanked out the blade, but it had something on it. Something bright, and beautiful, and covered in sparkling purple lightning. And suddenly, the pain was gone. Everything was gone. Junpei could only watch in dull silence as his fingers continued to disintegrate, and the figure lifted the beautiful something to look at.

"Well. That could have gone worse," he commented, and met Junpei's gaze with a horrible smile. "Goodbye."

* * *

><p><em>[_ _ _]<em>


	28. Needs must want

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Seven

"_**Need must want"**_

**TRUFAX:** You know, despite being a creep and a pitiable child… Noah was one hell of a magnificent bastard, wasn't he?

* * *

><p>Another crash of thunder, louder than the others, made Takuya pause, and he looked over his shoulder, suddenly wondering where the others were. Izumi and Tomoki he hadn't expected to see so early—they both slept like the dead without an alarm clock—but he had been kind of surprised when Junpei didn't come talk to him about the markings yet. Relieved, but surprised.<p>

"Takuya-han?"

He blinked, then looked back at Bokomon with a weak smile. Probably just another sign they'd given up on him. "It's nothing. You were saying?"

"Mm… I was saying that you shouldn't be worrying about little things right now!" it advised sagely, folding its arms over its chest and nodding to itself. "Now is not the time to be focussed on minor details – you should concentrate on finding Kouji and Kouichi!"

"Yeah, I get that," he said, setting a hand on his hip. "I'm not worried about Pipismon, I just wouldn't mind knowing where everyone is. I know this is a big place and all, but it's starting to get weird."

"Misplaced concern!" it shouted, and Takuya rolled his eyes but let it continue anyway. "Just accept that you're worried for the Warriors of Light and Darkness and go look for them!"

"I _know_ I'm worried about Kouji and Kouichi," he said wearily. "I just don't have time to chase them around like before. They could be anywhere right now, and we've gotta work on finding a new ending."

Bokomon blinked, cocking its head. "Why?"

"W- what do you mean, why?" he demanded. "There are –"

"The haato are what cause the problems in you and your world, are they not?" it asked. "The only haato left is Hiisutori-sama."

"And Puraido," he corrected, shifting his weight. "But they're just the symptoms. We're the actual problems, so I've gotta find a way to fix _us_."

"And you don't have time to do that? Why?"

He opened his mouth to answer, then stopped, not sure why he'd woken up that morning feeling like he had run out of time. As he'd said to Junpei, the lightning on the sun could be explained by the weirdness of the digital world, and he was willing to admit he'd just been wrong about the storm, but there was something… he felt like something was going to happen, and not having the others around just made it worse.

Bokomon gazed at him silently, eyes narrowed as if Takuya was some particularly difficult historical text. But in the end, it was Takuya to shake his head and step away.

"We need to figure out what's going on before the others end up like me," he said, and then turned on his heel to begin marching out. "I need to talk to Hiisutori."

"What-what-what?" Bokomon hurried after him, then paused when it realised Neemon wasn't following too. It ran back, snatched the sleeping rabbit's ankle and then dragged it along behind, ignoring the surprised cry of alarm that caused. "What do you mean like you? What's happening to you?"

"Nothing, Bokomon, it's fine," Takuya said absently, refusing to look down. He wasn't very good at lying to people's faces. "We just need to make sure the others get home okay."

"And you?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," he said, and Neemon lifted its head from the floor in vague curiosity.

"You don't sound like you want to go back."

"No," Bokomon agreed, hurrying to try and move ahead where it could catch Takuya's eye. "You haven't sounded like that since you got here."

Takuya ignored them both, stepping into the study corridor without comment. Bokomon hummed in its throat and closed its eyes, lifting a hand in point. "This I have come to understand, after years of research: humans belong in the human world. They shouldn't stay where they don't belong."

"But he isn't human anymore," Neemon pointed out. "Looks more like a digimon, to – erk!"

Bokomon dropped Neemon back to the ground and immediately snatched at its pants for punishment. "Bakamon!"

But Takuya ignored it. What Neemon lacked in tact, he made up for by being right. His feet had even started to change – his boots felt confining now, like they weren't flexible enough for him to comfortably walk.

He paused outside Hiisutori's door, waiting for the pantsu-batsu to finish, before saying, "And that's why we need to fix things. The others want to go home, and we have to make sure they can."

"But Takuya-han –" Bokomon began, but Takuya just opened the door without another glance.

"We need to talk, Hiisutori."

The paper that made up the haato's body was strewn across the desk, and although they shifted at his entrance, they didn't form anything. Its voice echoed around the room, "What do you want, Gateway?"

He grimaced, not particularly fond of talking to disembodied voices, but stepped inside continued anyway, "You said that to end the story properly, we needed to end the digital world or let it enter the real one. There's gotta be another option."

"There is always another option," the voice said wearily. "Everyone makes choices. No one ever wants to take the hard path."

"Which is?" he prompted.

"End this world or doom your own."

Takuya rolled his eyes, setting his hand on his hip. "Those are the easy choices! I'm talking about something hard to do – something we haven't thought of."

"Easy?" Hiisutori pulled itself upright, though it didn't pull on its human face. "You can make that decision? Destroy a world or risk another?"

Takuya shifted, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand, then shook his head. "There's gotta be another option. Something we haven't thought about. Tomoki said it: we can find a middle ground, right? Something that keeps both worlds safe."

Hiisutori's papers shuffled, as if snorting. "I'd heard of your naïveté."

"It's not naïveté, it's faith," he snapped. "It's sacrifice."

"Sacrifice?"

"I became the gateway, right?" he asked, and waited for the papers to nod before continuing, "So we get the others out and destroy the gateway. Both worlds continue without a door between them."

Bokomon gasped. "Takuya-han!"

"We don't want that," Neemon objected, but Takuya pretended he couldn't hear, watching Hiisutori for a reaction.

But the papers remained still, and although there weren't any eyes, somehow Takuya knew they were staring through him. "Outside fairytales, such sacrifices do not end wars, but inspire others to fight harder."

"This isn't the real world," he argued. "This place is full of fairytales."

Hiisutori shook its head, the papers that made its shoulders rifling in a breeze that wasn't there. "It's impossible anyway. You are the gateway, not the door."

"What's the difference?" he demanded. "You blow up a gateway, rocks fall, you shall not pass. Right?"

"You are a link to the human world. A human in digital form," it said coolly. "You cannot die here. You simply cease to be. Your data will infuse this world and you will guarantee the continued link between worlds by becoming part of this one."

Takuya glanced down at the ground, and then over to Bokomon and Neemon. They gazed back desperately, clutching at his boots. He swallowed, clenching his fist.

"There's gotta be a way to save this world and keep the others safe. There has to be."

"The easy way," Hiisutori said dully. "Let the cycle continue. Destroy me, destroy the digimon in yourself, and leave this world for another to find. The corrupted warriors will no longer threaten anything, until they are reborn in another way. It has happened many times before, it can again."

"How are we supposed to do that?" he asked. "We're what's corrupted, this time. How can we get rid of the digimon in ourselves?"

"Digivices are capable of a great many things, and the purification and removal of data is what they were _made_ for."

He paused a moment, then slowly lifted his hand, cocking his fingers so the material stretched, the tips of his claws shining through the ends. "Even me? You really think we can get the digimon out of me?"

"You could," it said, the paper near where its eye would be shifting slightly. "I have no idea what would be left, but it could be done. The Warrior of Light, however…"

"What? What about Kouji?"

"Quiet, now."

Takuya, Neemon and Bokomon all flinched, the two digimon yelping as they all turned toward the new voice. Standing half-hidden in the shadows, what looked like Jounouchi—the blond duellist—leaned against a wall that had definitely been empty when Takuya came in. He fiddled with a deck of cards, not looking up.

"That's quite enough exposition, if you don't mind, Hiisutori," the man said calmly. "I think our gateway knows his options."

Takuya frowned, gently pushing Bokomon behind him with his leg and flexing his fingers again. Although he didn't think this was a haato, he knew it wasn't an ordinary digimon, either. Or one of the good guys.

"What, no demands to know who I am?" the man asked. "No questions about how I got in here?"

"What can I say?" he asked, eyes flicking to the deck of cards and back. "I'm a little over the exposition myself."

The man's head twitched, his lips lifting in a slight smirk. "You _are_ the action hero. The Gateway, the leader… the human in the machine. So many things." His head twitched again, gaze redirecting to Hiisutori. "Thank you for your hard work. Couldn't have split them up better myself."

With a flurry of paper, Hiisutori gained its human form, but remained sitting, watching with knowing eyes. "Such gratitude does not come lightly from one such as yourself, Fiiru."

"No," he agreed, and flung one of the cards onto the desk. It immediately burst into flames, and Takuya cried out, leaping forward, but too late. By the time he reached the desk, Hiisutori was already turning black, crumbling in the fire. His eyes were still blue, though, and he met Takuya's gaze even as the rest of him burned.

"History is often destroyed for fear of the future," he said, his voice echoing as the ashes became data. "It is always rewritten by the victors."

"Hiisutori-sama!" Bokomon wailed, and Neemon had to grab him by the arms to keep him back, all of them watching in horrified silence as the haato's data slid up and around Takuya, circling him once before carrying on to the strange man.

"No," Takuya repeated breathlessly, staring at the place Hiisutori had been. "He… he wasn't hurting anyone."

"He was a haato," the man said lightly, twisting the data into a ball around his hand. "The last haato. I thought your job was to destroy them. Save your world and yourselves from the viruses… Really, I did you a favour."

"You were punishing him for telling us what's going on," he snarled, shoving himself away from the charred desk. "Why?"

The man chuckled, and as they watched, began to change. There was no flash of light, no dazzling data to hide it, but the man changed, becoming shorter and darker, what had looked like a high school uniform becoming clean white robes and heavy golden jewellery. It wasn't Yami Motou, but it looked like him, with the same hard blue eyes as the rest of the haato, which slid back into shadow as he tilted his head forward.

"I think I'm done talking," he said, and flung the data out.

It hit Takuya's chest hard, and he gasped, lifted off his feet from the force. He hung there a moment, breathless, before the data stabbed into his chest, and the world began to burn.

Absorbing data willingly was a wonderful feeling. Sometimes, it was like filling a hole you never knew was there. Other times, Takuya felt like he was surrounded by gently burning fires, warm and comforting, bringing feeling back to tired limbs.

But having it forced in was different.

It had only happened to him once before, when his beast spirit first cut through him, drowning out everything he was. The heat was still there, but it was scorching, shoving his insides around to make room. Back then, it had covered him and transformed him, knocking him out until Tomoki could reawaken him from behind Vrytramon's fear.

But this time, there was no knock out.

The fire ripped through him, surging out from his chest and in all directions. His cheeks burned, his forearms ripped apart, his feet stretched and hips cracked. He couldn't hear himself screaming, his ears filled with the screech of an animal he'd only heard once before.

And then, it disappeared, and he had a split second to realise he was still alive, before he was tossed back and through the wall, crashing against the floor and then tumbling into a heavy golden desk.

He coughed, and ash spluttered against his bare hands, caking into the lines of his claws.

"Takuya-han!"

"Are you alright?"

He rolled onto his back, and winced when the movement jarred his… tail. He blinked rapidly, still struggling to breathe, as he realised that yes, he could feel a tail. He could feel a tail, and the joints in his feet were wrong, and… and he had feathers that were caught and poking through something on his arms.

He lifted one to see, but almost immediately dropped it back to his chest. A glance was enough. Handless gauntlets, which left his long claws free, also held in place a line of red and gold feathers that he instinctively knew came from his own arm.

Licking his lips, he rolled onto his side again, pushing down with one arm to struggle back to his feet, where he could look back through the hole in the wall. Bokomon and Neemon were both gaping at him—at all the changes he didn't have time to note—but he just straightened his shoulders and glared at the man.

"Was that supposed to hurt me?" he snarled around too-long teeth.

"No, that was the last step to build the gateway: the human in digital form," he said, and drew a short, blood-red sword which sparked with black lightning. He slashed it through the air, and three shining, beautiful orbs appeared in its wake, each a slightly different colour, each feeling strangely familiar, and painful to look at.

The longer Takuya watched them, the larger they grew, and he clenched his fists as he started to recognise the shapes.

"Chakmon," he whispered, just as the light became solid and his friends appeared. "Shutsumon, Blitzmon…"

Izumi's beast mode, and Tomoki and Junpei's human spirits. All three met his gaze with furious eyes, radiating pain. Takuya's eyes widened, and he took a half-step back. These weren't shades, or the mimicry of Torasuto's shape-shifting. These were…

"What did you do to them?"

"I stripped them of the lies," the man said coolly. "The petty promises and make-believe that you still cling to. I made them what they really are – what you allowed them to become."

"Me?" he demanded. "What are you talking about?"

"Dependent on others," Chakmon snapped, slamming his blaster into place on his shoulder.

"Modest to the point of self-depreciation," Shutsumon murmured, raising her claws to the ready.

"Rejected and always alone," Blitzmon growled, bringing his fists together. Lightning spilled out over them, and Takuya flinched back, though he quickly shook his head and glared at the stranger again.

"You're not going to fool me. Torasuto tried this and failed – I won't fall for it. I know it's not them."

"Then where are they, Gateway?" he asked. "I don't care who you think they are. As long as they break you open."

And with that, Blitzmon began running forward, and Takuya flung an arm toward Bokomon and Neemon. "Get out of here! Find Sorcerymon and get out of the citadel!"

And then lightning crashed into his unarmoured stomach, and he called on the flames to protect himself.

* * *

><p>Kouji's foot had only touched the first step when he suddenly stopped, and Kouichi ran into him with a grunt.<p>

"Wha –"

"Something's wrong," he said, and Kouichi scratched under his ear, biting back the urge to state the obvious.

He was trying. Really he was. He understood the whole compromise thing – that Kouji had to listen to his feelings and Kouichi had to try thinking instead of reacting. He generally agreed with the plan of finding the others, working together to beat Fiiru, becoming friends again, and somehow thereby saving the day.

But they were running out of time, finally at the base of the stairs leading to the Citadel of Light, and he was getting really, really sick of the cryptic half-statements.

"All morning, there's been no wind," said Kouji, before he could comment. "It's been like the air was frozen. Now, there's a breeze."

Kouichi raised his eyebrows, glancing off to the side. While true—and weird, now he came to think of it—he didn't see the problem. "So?"

"So the weather in this world is important," he said, staring up the stairs. "And the wind is related to Izumi."

"She controls it, but it doesn't completely surround her," Kouichi pointed out, and stepped around him. "Why don't we keep going, and ask her about it when we're up there?"

"No, but –"

"Aren't you supposed to be not thinking so much?" he asked, and Kouji blinked, then nodded and began following behind. But as they continued up, Kouichi had to admit he was starting to get bad feelings too.

The thunder that had been echoing all morning had been freaking him out. They'd agreed that it was probably Kaiba's machines building up enough power to wipe everything, but that didn't help their nerves. And now it seemed to be coming more frequently, and there was no rhythm to it any more. And it was starting to get cold…

Both unconsciously rushing up the stairs, it took a few steps to realise they'd heard someone say Kouji's name, and they had to walk back down to see Pipismon peering out from behind a bushel of leaves.

"Kouji, Kouichi," it said, and scuttled along the branch it was hanging from to see them better. "Come back."

"Is that the pipismon that was following us?" Kouichi asked quietly, and Kouji slowly nodded.

"What are you doing down here?"

Pipismon just edged back behind its leaves. "Missed you, did we?"

"What?"

Kouichi took another step down so he was on level with the digimon, and moved as close to the edge of the stairs as he dared. "It looks scared… did something happen up there?"

"Something…" Kouji looked at his brother, then quickly back at Pipismon. "Is it the others? Did something happen?"

"You won't really be able to tell anyone what you see here," it parroted, and shuffled out of sight. "Fiiru has come. I already have two, in a few short hours I'll have three. And that's all I'll need to claim the gateway."

"Fiiru," Kouichi repeated quietly, and they exchanged glances, Kouji moving up another step.

"He's claiming the gateway…?"

"It's already most of the way open. All I have to do is take control and I'll be able to reach the other side." Judging from its tiny, barely-controlled gasps between phrases, the only thing keeping Pipismon's voice steady was that it was copying someone much calmer. "Tell them I'm coming. It will still be too late."

"Guys," Kouji breathed, and started sprinting up the stairs.

Kouichi watched him go, and then turned back to Pipismon, who peeked out from behind the leaves. He swallowed, his fist clenching and unclenching by his side. "Fiiru already got the others?"

"Too late."

"Okay," he whispered, and then nodded, starting up the stairs as well. "We'll get them back, Pipismon."

Pipismon tapped its claws together, and said, "Go, then."

With that cheering him on, Kouichi turned and began running after his brother. He wasn't sure how Kouji knew where he was going—these trees were a labyrinth—but he certainly wasn't stopping for anything. The branches that had obscured the pathway their first time up here were just shoved out of the way and broken in some places, and Kouichi paused just long enough to break one of them off completely in preparation. If things were that bad, he would need his Shadow Lance.

A blast of light told him Kouji had cleared the fog ahead the easy way, and he gripped his branch firmly, steeling himself.

"Sorcerymon!"

For a second, Kouichi was concerned by the shout, since the others had told him about the first Sorcerymon, and how he'd sacrificed himself to save them. It had apparently been pretty traumatic the first time, and he didn't think they'd be able to take that again. But then the tone registered, and he pushed himself harder to catch up and see why Kouji could possibly be angry.

And then he saw the massive frozen wall blocking them from the Citadel's protective barrier.

"What the hell…?"

Kouji turned to look at him, then angrily gestured to the wall, as if Kouichi possibly could have missed it. "He blocked us out!"

He frowned as he walked up beside him, reaching out to touch the ice. Sure enough, on the other side of the barrier, they could just make out Sorcerymon, holding his staff out in threat or spell. Either way, Kouichi scowled and slammed his branch against the ice. "What are you doing?"

"You must not enter," the digimon explained. "You must not interfere with what happens here."

Kouji growled, and Kouichi shifted his grip on the branch, pulling his darts from the shadows. It was getting harder to control his temper. "Why not?"

"I may not agree with his methods, but Fiiru is saving this world," Sorcerymon said calmly. "It is my duty to safeguard this Citadel and its inhabitants. That includes you, the Grand Strategist and Harbinger of Darkness. If you come in here, you will be destroyed."

"You're not protecting the other warriors by keeping us out!" Kouji snapped.

He was silent a moment, his chin lowering further behind his cloak until his face was completely hidden. "What was lost will be regained in time. I cannot change what has already happened."

"And Takuya?" demanded Kouichi. "Is _he_ already lost?"

"No. But sacrifices must be made, and he was already prepared."

"Takuya's never prepared for anything," Kouji snarled, yanking out his digivice. "I liked you, but no one keeps me from my partner. You have one chance to lower this wall."

Sorcerymon used his thumb to lever his hat up, just enough that they could see his eyes. "I will not."

"Then you're prepared to make a sacrifice yourself," he warned, and lifted his hand, allowing the beast data to spring up where it was visible. He twitched his hand, threatening, but Sorcerymon remained steadfast behind the ice, meeting his gaze with steady eyes.

"I have heard the options of this world. I have heard of the choice you are making. I choose to see the continuation of my world," he said calmly. "And if it can be made stronger through a bridge to your world, then a bridge must be built."

"I'm not playing here, Sorcerymon," said Kouji. "Lower the wall."

"I will not."

"Oh, the hell with this," Kouichi muttered, and swung his shadow-coated branch at the ice. It hit hard, immediately causing cracks, and Sorcerymon jumped, staring at him as if he'd forgotten he was there. Well used to the reaction, Kouichi didn't give him time to comment, just drew the branch back and swung again.

With the second crack, violent enough to almost reach the edge of the wall, Sorcerymon began pouring on the magic, reinforcing his ice with inaudible muttering, but Kouichi was sick and tired of playing games. He was _over_ being nice. He didn't pause, didn't comment at Kouji's uncomfortable look.

Kaiba was about to wipe everything—including them—off his servers.

Their friends could already be seriously hurt – could be dead.

Takuya was alone and in danger, that very second.

His brother was about to lose the last thing in this world he really cared about.

_They_ _did not have time to be nice about this_!

Finally, with an explosion of shadows that made Kouji grunt, the branch splintered against the ice one last time, shattering it along with the wood. Kouichi kicked his heel through the last foot of ice on the ground, and then lashed out, grabbing Sorcerymon by the cloak and yanking him up and out.

For a moment, everything was silent, as Kouichi glared and Sorcerymon gazed back, ever defiant. Kouji hesitated, unwillingly to leave, but Kouichi jerked his head toward the Citadel impatiently.

"Go."

He paused, then nodded once and began running for the inner walls, leaving his brother with Sorcerymon, who narrowed his eyes.

"You doom our world."

"I don't especially care about your world," he corrected quietly. "Or mine. Here or there, I still have the same problems. I'm still gonna think I'm a terrible person, and I'm still going to think I could've done more, no matter which world wins. But with Takuya, I know my brother can save them both. And you were in the way."

"The Shining Pair can do many things, but they aren't a team right now," Sorcerymon pointed out. "Regardless, for twenty years, we have had to survive alone, and made our own decisions. They don't have the right to make decisions for us anymore."

Kouichi pulled him closer, tilting his head the better to meet his gaze under the hat. "We left because someone else made the choice for us. We're only involved because other people made this world, and I have _never_ come here because I wanted to. We didn't ask to be infected, we just _are_. Don't talk to me about rights and choices."

"You do not scare me, Harbinger," he said coldly. "You have been corrupted and by fighting Fiiru, you will be destroyed. I, as a digimon, will be reborn. Will you?"

He ignored that, turning and striding to the edge of the stairs. "I don't care about scaring you, or destroying you. Like I said: you were just in the way. All I care about is _keeping_ you out of the way."

At Sorcerymon's confused frown, he silently extended his arm, holding him out over the long drop to the ground. "Do me a favour. Catch something on your way down."

And with that, he let go, ignoring the scream as he turned and ducked under the last of the ice. He picked up Sorcerymon's dropped staff and continued on into the Citadel, swallowing hard but never looking back.

No one had ever said Darkness had to be nice.

* * *

><p>Sprinting through the corridors, Kouji could hear the sounds of a battle, his friends' voices playing in the echoes but not really audible. But he had no idea where they were coming from, and besides, he'd only been in the Citadel twice in his life, both times with a guide.<p>

It was a maze, and he had no idea how to find his friends.

Eventually, he slowed to a stop and leaned on the wall, panting as he stared around for some kind of clue. It was just another corridor, like the other five he'd already run through.

He was lost.

"_Takuya_!" he shouted desperately. "Junpei, Izumi, Tomoki! Can anyone hear me?"

"Kouji-han!"

He swung around, shocked by the response, and straightened as one of the doors opened a little wider, Bokomon peeking out around it. "Kouji-han! It's you! You're here!"

"Bokomon!" he cried, running over, and his smile widened a touch as Neemon stepped out behind its partner. "Neemon!"

"It's good to see you," Neemon said blandly. "Have you seen Sorcerymon?"

"What?"

"We're looking for Sorcerymon. We have to get out of the Citadel," Bokomon explained quickly. "Kouji-han, there's a fight. You have to help Takuya-han."

"And the others, I know," he agreed, glancing back down the hall. "Where are they?"

"Don't help the others," said Neemon. "That would be bad, I think."

His head snapped back, and Bokomon tapped its paws together nervously. "It's that stranger. Fiiru, I think he's called. He did something to them. Made them bad."

"The others?"

"Izumi, Tomoki and Junpei," Neemon clarified.

"And he did something to Takuya-han too. He transformed," Bokomon added. "He's a complete digimon now. Fiiru said something about now all he has to do is force the gateway open, and if Takuya-han's the gateway…"

Kouji swore, shoving a hand back over his hair. Well, at least he definitely knew what was going on. "Where are they?"

"We left them in the study wing, but they sound closer now. That way."

"Right. You two get out of here, I'll help the others."

"What about Sorcerymon?" asked Neemon, and Kouji grimaced.

"Don't worry about him. If you see Kouichi, send him after me. Be careful!"

"You too," they said, as he hurried on, already pulling out his digivice.

So this was it. All his theories, from the diagram in the dirt to his revelation on the cliffside, all of it came down to this.

The story—the corruption and the problem—wasn't about the digital world. The haato weren't Noah's manifestations this time – _they_ were.

Before the Digital World, they'd been like Noah: different to other kids. They hadn't fit into the real world any more than Noah had when he was alive. That was why they, out of all the children Ophanimon called, were the ones to gain spirits.

Junpei, always alone in a crowd, Tomoki spoiled beyond function, Izumi rejected by everyone. Kouji knew he hadn't worked either – he'd kept himself so distanced from everything that he'd practically been a machine.

And then there was a death. Kouichi's death. An accident, just like Noah's.

And just like Noah, all it had taken was a little magic, and they began to learn all learned those skills that were supposed to come naturally to humans. Emotions and courage and self-awareness.

But they had still just been learning about them, not quite ready to put them into practice, when their lessons were cut off and they were forced back into the real world. That was why Tomoki still hadn't made real friends, and Junpei still doubted himself, and Izumi was so lost… why Kouji still clung to Takuya as his main form of social contact.

They weren't fully functioning humans, yet. They'd just been thrown out, half healed, and expected to make do.

The exceptions were Kouichi and Takuya, because really, they would have been fine in the real world. Kouichi was a perfectly balanced person until his dying grandmother turned everything upside down. Then, while he was still dealing with the emotional turmoil of that, the digital world turned him into a mass-murdering psychopath. His way of healing was to accept his own death… only to be brought back to life and be expected to be grateful.

And Takuya… Before the Digital World, Takuya had just been so… human.

He'd been so utterly normal that he bored himself. Every day had been exactly the same, with the same people and events. The slice of magic that taught the others how to feel had taught him about change, and the unexpected. For the first time, he'd had no idea what was happening, and it just brought him to life.

And then it was all taken away.

All this time, Takuya had been right. None of them had never really been okay, after the digital world. They'd been clinging to each other, holding each other up, haunted by the same things that had been killing them before, living through each other to survive.

That was what made the haato. They'd left part of themselves behind – cut themselves off from everything that could keep them stable and happy. The spirits had become corrupted in the Digital World for the same reasons they were falling apart in the real one: they were two halves of a whole, hanging on by threads.

And Fiiru was using those threads to get into the real world, and spread Noah's infection everywhere he could reach.

If they wanted to get through this properly—to save the worlds and themselves—they had to heal. They had to finish learning the lessons Noah had nearly learnt all those years ago. Lessons about how to be human, not just monster or machine.

And just as he had learned by dealing with people, so would they. If they were going to get through this, they needed to rely on each other. Learn from each other about how to live and feel and think, because that was how humans grew.

That was what made them whole.

An explosion in the wall knocked Kouji off his feet, quickly followed by another that cracked the crystal. He looked up, pulling his digivice back to the ready, and started listening for the attack.

"_Wind of Pain_!"

The hit wasn't against this wall – it crashed against something a few metres away. He scrambled back to his feet and started for the nearest entrance. At least he knew where the fight was, now.

The door crashed open under his weight, his push knocking it off its abused hinges to shatter against the floor. But the only one to notice him was Blitzmon, who twisted in place just long enough to see him before slamming his fists together over his head.

"_Thor Hammer_!"

"Oh, hell," he croaked, and dove through the doorway and out of the path of his attack. As he rolled back to his feet, he stared around the room, trying to get a hold of the situation.

This was clearly only the latest site of the battle. There was a hole in the wall at Kouji's back, and he could see the walls crumbling on the other side of that room, too. Chakmon was currently lodged in the wall that had knocked Kouji over, trying to disentangle his ice from the crystal, while Shutsumon was beating all living hell out of a wall of fire. That was as far as he got before a lightning-covered fist came for his head again.

"Junpei!" he shouted, ducking under and swinging around to try and scoop Blitzmon's legs out from under him. He managed to hook one and pull him off balance, but it cost him as Blitzmon used the now shifted leg to kick his thigh. Kouji grunted, rolling with the blow and getting back to his feet. "Junpei, snap out of it!"

"This has nothing to do with you! Get lost!" he snarled, trying to snatch his jacket.

He grunted again, dodging backward as he called on his data. "_Beast spirit evolution_!"

The evolution always felt longer than it looked on the outside, and this time he swore it dragged even longer than usual, imagining Blitzmon punching straight through the data for his neck. But finally, he was back as Garmamon, and wasted no time in shifting up onto his wheels, blade-wings out backwards so they wouldn't cut.

"_Speed star_!"

Thankfully, he caught Blitzmon in the chest, who had been too surprised by the beast evolution to react, and raced a few metres forward. In a room this size, he couldn't get far, but the acceleration was enough that when he stopped, Blitzmon kept going, flying across the room and crashing into the newly-freed Chakmon. Kouji inwardly nodded to himself and started for Shutsumon.

Unfortunately, Shutsumon was fast enough to notice and dodge, instinctively throwing the last of her Gilgamesh Slicers his way, but he ignored it as they stabbed against his blades, screeching to a halt just long enough to bash through the flames and snatch the first limb he felt. He yanked out, not bothering to check how Takuya looked, just tossing him up onto his back and ducking under another Slicer.

"Garmamon," Takuya gasped. "Kouji… you…"

"I'm back," he said shortly, and dashed for the hole in the wall. "Hold on."

"Kouji, no, we can't… we can't leave," Takuya panted, even as Kouji felt him tighten his grip to not fall off as they bounded over the rubble. "We've gotta help the others. They're… they're hurting."

"They're hurting you."

"Kouji… Kouji, stop."

He didn't answer, bounding around corners until he was certain they were far enough away. Then he slid to a stop and allowed Takuya to drop to the floor, taking a moment to look at his friend.

His hair hadn't changed, or the shape of his face, but his fingers ended in dangerous-looking claws, and a fiery tail flickered behind him. The biggest changes could have been armour: his boots looked like Agunimon's bird-like feet, while his gauntlets were lined with long, impressive feathers like Vrytramon or Ancient Greymon's. Eventually, Takuya looked up, and Kouji breathed a sigh of relief when, even though his cheeks were marked by dark grey symbols, his eyes were still that same mahogany brown.

He was still Takuya, overall.

"You came back," he murmured, and Kouji tossed his head in the closest Garmamon could get to a shrug.

"We have a lot to talk about, later. But for now, we need to get the others back to normal," he said, and Takuya nodded, using one of Kouji's wings to drag himself upright.

"It's that psycho that looks like the duellist guys."

"Fiiru?"

"Is that his name? I dunno," He pressed his free hand to his head, swaying despite Kouji's support. "I think… I think he might have gotten their cores. He summoned them from these balls of light. And… they're mad. They're really mad."

"I noticed." He ducked his head to try and see Takuya's face a little better. It was hard to tell, given that his skin tone seemed to have changed with the transformation, but he looked a little grey. "How bad did they hit you?"

He shook his head, but didn't lower his hand or meet his gaze. "The others… Kouji, we've gotta help them. They're in pain. Their hearts – it's worse than before. Worse than even the Light Temple, when Junpei almost lost it…" He clenched his eyes shut, turning a little further away from him. "It's like their hearts are broken. All of them."

"Takuya…?"

"_Tsurararara_!"

They both jumped as ice smashed through the wall beside them, and Kouji shoved Takuya away, spinning around to face it as the crystal shattered. Chakmon dropped to the ground, pulling his blaster around, while Blitzmon punched away more of the broken wall so Shutsumon and he could step through.

"Guys!" Takuya called desperately, even as Kouji extended a blade-wing to keep him back. "Guys, please, listen to me! We can help!"

"We've had enough of your help, Takuya," Shutsumon snarled, swinging her arms up as they glowed purple. "Now, it's time you took some of ours."

"You handle him," Blitzmon advised.

"We'll take care of Kouji," Chakmon added, and Kouji had time to hunch down at the ready before Blitzmon shot forward, horn sparking with lightning that shoved Kouji back onto his wheels and into the wall.

"No! Guys, wake up!" he yelled, ducking Chakmon's ice bullets. He saw Shutsumon tackle Takuya and swore, trying to twist back onto his feet. "Takuya! Fight b- argh! Dammit, Chakmon!"

"Izumi!" Takuya seemed to be trying to catch her wrists, but all he was actually doing was getting dangerously close to having his hands ripped off. "Izumi, stop!"

Frustrated, Kouji snatched Chakmon's blaster in his jaws and yanked it away, tossing it through the hole in the wall. That done, he started charging the light behind his throat. "_Solar_ –"

"Kouji, no, don't hurt –!" Takuya shouted, but Kouji ignored.

"_Laser_!"

The light shot out, slamming Chakmon off the ground, but Blitzmon caught him and dodged the blast, already running for him with electricity at the ready.

"_Mjolnir Thunder_!" His fist crashed into the floor at Kouji's feet, cracking it up and out from under him, putting him just off-balance enough for Blitzmon to get in close and drag all three of them down.

The last thing Kouji saw as he was pushed through a huge crack in the floor was Takuya finally grab Shutsumon's hands in his own, only for her feet to come up and rake long tracks in his chest.

"_Takuya_!"

* * *

><p><em>[_C:wipedisk_all run_]_


	29. Freedom in Truth

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Eight

_**Freedom in Truth**_

**TRUFAX: **The hardest fights are the ones you have with yourself. The secret is to stay strong, and if you're lucky, someone will take on the battle when you can't.

* * *

><p>The tunnels under the citadel were small and tight, not designed for speed. And, all things considered, Kouji knew that fighting his friends wasn't going to win this battle. But he remained as Garmamon, racing through the tunnels as best he could to put some distance between himself and the others, trying to set a plan in motion.<p>

If there was anything this world had taught him, it was that when his friends were corrupted and trying to kill everyone, force didn't work. It just got you hurt and the surrounding countryside damaged. Talking worked. Emotions. He had to work the emotions through. It had worked on Vrytramon, it had worked on Izumi, Junpei and Tomoki in the dark, it had worked on Kouichi. It was currently working on him, when he stayed focussed on his beast form and what he wanted, rather than what he knew. Now he just had to use that to his advantage.

It was just getting them to stop and listen to him that was the problem.

"Problem," he muttered to himself as he found a perfect, large dead-end, "but not without a solution. _Solar_…" Lasers quietly charging, he turned and lay down, watching the corridor ahead. He remained still when they found him, waiting until they had both charged their own weapons.

"Lightning Top-"

"Snow Bo-"

"_Laser_!" Already at full power and faster than either of them by a mile, he shot the laser straight past their heads and into the ceiling behind. The rocks shattered and crumbled to the ground behind them, the weight of the falling boulders enough to make Blitzmon and Chakmon stumble – Blitzmon's electricity-covered horn jerking up into the ceiling and Chakmon's blaster crashing into the ground.

Their combined attacks, while still only half-formed, were enough to shatter the corridor in front of them, and Kouji let his evolution fade, watching warily as he and his friends became trapped and separated by large, heavy rocks.

When there were no immediate sounds from the other side of the new wall, Kouji took half a step forward, "You two alright?"

There was another pause, before the squeaky sound of Chakmon's boot hitting stone broke the silence. "Coward! You can't escape!"

"I'm not trying to. I'm trying to talk to you."

"Let us out!" shouted Blitzmon.

"Yeah! This has nothing to do with you!"

He folded his arms, slightly more annoyed than before. "You were trying to kill me. I take that personally."

"We wouldn't have if you'd just stayed out of it."

"Takuya is the only one who needed to get hurt!"

"Yeah, he's my partner, I take that personally, too," he snapped, then settled his weight on his back leg as he added, "And since when, anyway? The obvious Izumi thing aside, what'd he ever do to you?"

"We don't have to answer to you!" Blitzmon yelled, and Kouji fell back a step as lightning crashed against the rubble, causing a few small stones to fall.

But, the digital world being the completely logic- and physics-defying place it was, the wall remained up, and Kouji took the step back, hand out defensively despite himself.

"Then make me understand. You were talking to Takuya civilly when we left the temple. What happened?"

"This goes back before any of this!" shouted Chakmon. "This is about what he's done since the moment we met!"

"Since even before that! He's so perfect, what right does he have to shove that in everyone's face?" demanded Blitzmon. "Who is he to get everything, all the time, when we get nothing?"

"He won't even share it with us! He takes everything and we—his supposed friends—get nothing!"

Kouji frowned, narrowing his eyes as he tried to follow the logic back to an emotional point. He knew Junpei had always been jealous of Takuya—and Kouji himself, too, at times—because even though Junpei was the oldest and strongest of their team, he and his ideas always took second place to Kouji and Takuya.

And Tomoki… Tomoki was lonely. He'd always been lonely, because he was too weak to stand up to people, but too self-centred to be a doormat. It meant that he never spoke to people who didn't talk to him first, but also never had the horrible kind of friends that would use him. He depended on other people to give him what he needed, and they couldn't always provide.

Those were their flaws, Kouji thought decisively. The things that had defined them before they came to the digital world and learned to function. Junpei's sense of constant rejection, and Tomoki's dependency on others. Those were the flaws that had been made into haato, and what Fiiru had now used to corrupt them. So to purify them, he would need to call on what they'd been learning when they were thrown out of the world the first time.

He glanced up at the ceiling, as if he could see Takuya and Izumi's battle. Then he swallowed and turned back to the rubble.

"You're right," he said. "Takuya gets everything. The looks, the grades, the friends, everything. And he doesn't even realise what he has, so he acts like it's nothing special, when it is. He certainly doesn't help us get what he has, because he thinks we should already have it."

"Like not having it makes us less than him!" Chakmon added viciously. "The least he could do is help us!"

"Why?"

"What?"

"Why?" Kouji repeated bluntly. "Why should he help us get what he has?"

There was a short pause, and then Blitzmon tried, several times, to give an answer, before Chakmon snapped, "Because he says he's our friend!"

"And? Friends are only friends if they give you what you want?" he asked. It was a cheap shot and he knew it – Takuya had told him about the selfish digimon Tomoki had fought in the lava pits, and the lessons he'd had to learn. But cheap or not, they were still lessons Tomoki had learned, and needed to remember. "All those times Takuya came when you needed him to be there, all the times he helped you and hung out with you, that's nothing because he didn't get you a girlfriend?"

"Shut up, Kouji, you could never understand!" Blitzmon shouted, before Chakmon could respond. "You're just like him! Looks and smarts, you never have to try for anything!"

He glared at the rocks, straightening his shoulders. "Genetics and hours of study, Junpei. Hours of study I spent with _you_!" He waited a beat, then took another step forward, pointing savagely as if he could see through the rubble. "You were always my friend, Junpei. I liked you days before I stopped wanting to wring Takuya's neck! I spent hours at your house, studying for high school, because you'd been through it, and I knew you could help me!"

"If you had another friend that was older –"

"Yeah, Junpei, but I don't," he snapped. "All my seniors in kendo and judo clubs, always so willing to help out a junior, who'd aced their exams because they're naturally smart! I didn't want their help. I don't want their friendship. And I don't need it, because I've got yours."

The silence practically echoed, and when something did move behind the rubble, it was the squeak of Chakmon's boots as he shifted his weight. Kouji swallowed, not completely sure whether he was coming across as determined or cheesy. Emotional speeches were Izumi and Tomoki's thing, not his.

"And even though I would, and you know it, I know I don't have to do anything to repay that favour. Because you wouldn't have helped me if you didn't want to. Friends don't just give things because they're obligated, or because they want things in return. And we are friends, right?"

Another pause, before Blitzmon grunted, "Yeah." After another second, he spoke again, more confident this time. "Yeah, we are friends."

"And friendship—real friendship, like we learned in this world—it's never a one-way street. Right, Tomoki?"

"Friends… friends help their friends out," he said quietly, and Kouji nodded, taking that one last step until he could lay his hand against the rubble.

"We depend on each other. And that means that sometimes we need others to help. That we can't always be perfect. We shouldn't _have_ to be perfect, for our friends. And they shouldn't have to be perfect for us."

"But he always was," Chakmon said hoarsely, his voice cracking on the last syllable. "He was always everything I needed, no matter what, and now he's gone and…"

"He's never been perfect, Tomoki. And he always needed our help," he said firmly. "He didn't—doesn't—know it, but it's time for him to depend on us. All of us."

"I…"

"I can't," Blitzmon said, though his voice wasn't nearly as strong as it had been. He sounded angry, but not at Takuya, anymore. "I can't – can't forgive him."

"No," agreed Chakmon. "It's been too long and it's too late!"

Kouji rolled his eyes up to the ruined ceiling, searching for patience he was quickly losing, and said, "Fine. But do you think, just maybe, that might be because you've been corrupted by Fiiru?"

"Even so!" Blitzmon shouted. "Even if we are, it's how we feel, Kouji, and it's not going away with a feel-good friendship speech!"

He stepped back from the wall, his jaw working slightly in annoyance.

Alright. He'd tried to be nice. He'd tried deflection. He'd tried emotion. He wasn't going to try logic, because he was barely keeping his own in check and couldn't risk it. As far as he was concerned, he'd tried everything he could.

So that meant it was time to stop being nice about it and just _beat_ the logic out of them.

* * *

><p>He took out his digivice again, calmly scanned his beast data and transformed, then hitched himself up on his wheels and called on his lasers. Then he put everything he had into bringing the ceiling down on his friends.<p>

In the real world, there was fire raining from the sky as Yuugi ran out onto the street, already summoning a magnet warrior as Yami followed him out, locking the Millennium Tauk around his neck. Meteorites, inexplicable sparks, still-burning embers from a fire no one could see. Everywhere the fire fell, it scorched the ground, and eyes peered up out of the ash, surprised by the world they could see above.

In the digital world, Takuya pressed back against a wall with his eyes clenched shut, barely listening for the sound of Shutsumon's wings as he struggled just to breathe.

While Fairymon was very sweet-looking, and the least offensive of the Legendary Warriors, Shutsumon was the kind of digimon that looked exactly as dangerous as she was. Even when she wasn't using her powers, the strength in her legs combined with those sharp talons of hers had made Takuya sure that if he'd still had internal organs, they would've been pretty busted at this point.

Not that he _would_ have internal organs anymore…

He clenched his eyes shut tighter, shaking his head slightly. Now was not the time to get upset about new bodies. He had to find a way to win this fight and fix Izumi. Then he had to save the others. And then the Digital World, and the real one. Then maybe talk to Kouji about everything. And then, when all that was done, he could panic. Not before.

People may not have been relying on him, but it was still his responsibility to fix things. Especially since he was the one to screw it all up in the first place.

Damn, why couldn't he have just done something back when he first noticed the problem?

"Come on, Takuya, come out," Shutsumon called. "You've left me all alone, and we all know we can't have that."

His friends had issues. Takuya had always known that. But he'd never done anything about it, because he'd always figured that no matter what the problem was, they'd get through it together. As long as he stood by them, then everything would be fine. Because wasn't that all anyone really needed? Someone to stay with them?

Well, obviously not. If it was, then his friends would have gotten the self-confidence to get past this. Fiiru wouldn't have been able to corrupt them so easily.

All that time, he thought he'd been helping his friends, and he'd just been hiding them from their problems.

He hissed in a breath, his claws scraping against the crystal as he tried to hold it together. He'd failed his friends. Completely and utterly failed his friends. The people who had always trusted him. The people he'd wanted to protect more than anything.

He'd completely failed them all.

In the real world, Yami yanked Yuugi out of the way of a hand reaching out through the ash as the gateway slowly opened and digimon crawled out the other side.

* * *

><p>Although he wasn't a huge fan of being left behind, the one good thing about coming to the fight after a few rounds was that Kouichi had time to really evaluate the situation.<p>

Twirling Sorcerymon's staff through his hands, testing the weight and balance and watching shadows slide off the ends, he continued past splintered crystal and telling lumps of melted ice.

He wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but he was pretty damn willing to put money on Fiiru having turned his friends against each other. Horrible as it was, Kouichi figured there wasn't much point in worrying about it. Life was gonna keep going regardless, and even if, by some miracle, they saved both worlds, bad stuff was gonna keep happening on a smaller scale. All you could ever really do was face things as they came.

With that in mind, when a strong wind blew down a corridor as he passed it, he calmly stepped back to see Shutsumon at the end, all four wings extended to their widest span as she panted wildly.

"Come on, Takuya, come out," she called breathlessly. "You've left me all alone, and we all know we can't have that."

Kouichi frowned, lowering his head as he began walking down the corridor toward her. Facing things as they came was a hard life lesson he'd learned from Takuya and Kouji – one he wasn't sure they'd ever realised they were teaching him. Kouji was the type of person that couldn't leave things alone until they'd been solved, while Takuya just never gave up on anything. Watching them change their worlds, both in the digital world and then again in the real one, had shown him just how much simpler life was when you just faced up to your problems. Even if you screwed up, you could at least change your circumstances.

No matter how much facing those problems sucked at the time.

"Hey, Izumi."

She jumped and twisted in place, the wings on her head folding at his voice. But she relaxed when she saw him, and flicked a taloned hand in his direction. "Go away, Kouichi. This isn't your fight."

"What fight?" he asked, even as he settled back on one foot in a ready stance. "Weren't you just calling for Takuya to come out and be with you?"

"Don't try to be all heroic," she snapped. "You could never know how I feel. My whole life, I've been surrounded by people that _expect_ things of me. Who shape me into what they want. You've been left alone. You've always been free. You couldn't understand."

"Free? Is that what we're calling it, now?" he asked. "Here I thought it was loneliness and being lied to for the first twelve years of my life. What's that got to do with Takuya?"

She straightened up to her full height and lifted off the floor so she could gaze down at him imperiously. Kouichi swallowed despite himself, tightening his grip on his spear as she flexed her talons. He was suddenly reminded that before he and Kouji had left them, Izumi hadn't been able to evolve at all, and here she was at her most powerful, and clearly not in her right mind.

Standing up to her while in human form was probably not his brightest decision in recent days.

"Your brother already tried this. But you won't change my mind either. For years, I've thought Takuya was my truest friend – the one who saw through my looks to see _me_. But I've realised now. I've realised that he's only spent years fooling me to make me happy. He never told me the truth, not really." She flung out her arms, a wave of air lashing out to blow Kouichi's coat back and nearly make him stumble. "I will _not_ be made up to be perfect! Not anymore! And anyone who tries to make me that way will pay the price! Including you, Kouichi!"

He sighed as she rose a little higher in the air, and shook his head, lifting his spear higher. Bad decision or not, it was one he'd made. "And people say I'm dramatic."

"_Gilgamesh Slicer_!"

He barely dodged out of the way of her energy-coated talons, but immediately swung his spear up and around, trying to stab her as she slid into the floor. She kicked out one leg to knock it aside and lunged for his chest, making him have to drop onto his back to avoid her, before kicking his own legs up and grinding his heels into her abdomen.

Unfortunately, being a bird, Shutsumon merely spread her wings with the shove and flipped, only needing to flap once before making a graceful landing while Kouichi had to scramble back to his feet. By the time he got up, she was already charging forward, arms up and to the side. "Wind of –"

"_Ewig Schlaf_!" he snapped, spinning his spear to deflect the waves before they could come, and then shoving both it and himself forward to nearly catch her side. She just managed to dodge, caught off-guard, but couldn't avoid it when he flung out his left hand, Dark Darts spitting against her chest and slicing into vulnerable flesh.

She cried out as she fell back, blinking rapidly as she clutched at the already dissipating darts, then up at Kouichi as he stepped over her, spear raised at the ready.

"Izumi, you're my friend, and I love you," he said coolly, "but unlike pretty much all of our friends, I _will_ hit a girl that deserves it."

"Kouich-"

He stabbed down, and she screamed, but stopped almost immediately when she didn't feel it hit. She blinked again, and then made a small noise of annoyed surprise when she realised he had only stabbed through her scarf, pinning it to the ground.

"You would hit a girl, but not me?" she demanded, glaring up at him, but then stopped, noticing the digivice in his hand. She leaned back, raising her arm defensively. "What are you –"

"Digicode Release!" he commanded, and she gasped as something bright, shining and white burst out of her chest. They both gazed at it, almost enraptured by the small wisps of wind bleeding out of it, until Shutsumon began to glow blue, and then digitised into a shadow silhouette of her human self. It was enough to jolt Kouichi back to the present, and he extended his digivice toward her.

"The evil that dwells within your heart will be buried and laid to rest within my darkness," he recited, and clicked the button to absorb digital power. "_Digicode scan_!"

Normally, when they absorbed data, the blue was pulled into the digivice for purification, but this time, there was nothing there to scan. Instead, the wind picked up around the ball of light, until finally it exploded, and something dark shot out and into the digivice. It hit Kouichi like a physical blow, and he staggered off his feet, landing in a painful lump opposite Izumi's silhouette. He blinked for a moment, wondering at the strange balance he suddenly felt, and then looked down at his digivice.

For a few wonderful seconds, Lowemon smiled back at him from behind his mask, before the red eyes closed, and darkness filled the screen. Kouichi swallowed, his fingers clenching around his digivice, before he extended it again without thinking, eyes rising to Izumi's silhouette.

"Lost warrior, purified by darkness, be reborn now and find your way," he murmured. For a moment, nothing happened, before the wind picked up again, and a beautiful stream of shining blue data emerged from his scanner. It circled up and around Izumi for a few seconds, and then reached out for the shining light.

With a burst of wind that pushed them both back a foot, the light snapped up the data, and then shot back into Izumi's silhouette. She gasped like she was drowning, reforming back into her normal human self, completely unharmed. Choking for air, she fell forward, and Kouichi lunged toward her, but was too late to keep her from hitting the ground.

"Izumi!"

"Don't touch me!" she gasped, her hand lashing up to slap him away before he could. He pulled back, and she clenched her fist, curling tighter against the ground. "Don't touch me…"

He frowned, then shifted onto his knees and crawled forward, hesitating when he came just close enough to touch, but not stopping. When he was kneeling beside her, he lay down his spear and bent to watch her face as she began to pull herself up. "Izumi?"

"Don't ask if I'm alright," she said weakly, but finally lifted her head to meet him with clear but pained eyes. "But I'm back to myself."

They just gazed at each other silently for a few moments, before Kouichi huffed out a breath and looked away. She looked like she wanted to talk. He hated talking.

Sure enough, after a few more seconds, she murmured, "I don't even know what happened. I was in my room, and there was this person there… telling me all this stuff I already knew. But it was like I was hearing it for the first time. And then - then there was nothing, but all I could think about was how it was all Takuya's fault." She sniffed, and slapped a tear away before it could fall. "I don't even remember why. Because if… if anything, he's the one person who… Oh, Kouichi…"

He glanced at her, then silently removed his coat to sling it across her shoulders. She pulled it shut over her chest, blinking at the ceiling to keep her tears at bay.

"When I came back… when I could feel things again, it was like I was in complete control, but I'd never been so mad at anyone in my life. I was so mad at Takuya," she said, and then shook her head, closing her eyes again. "I hurt him. I hurt him really badly."

He bit back the urge to point out she'd tried to do it to him, too, and instead curled his arm over her shoulders, pulling her into his side. "Was about time, really. The only one of us who hasn't been homicidal at one point so far is Kouji. And possibly Junpei."

"No," she said, her voice cracking. "No, he's after Takuya too. And Kouji, for interfering. Oh, god…"

"We should go help," he said, and hugged her for a second before letting go so he could pick up his spear. Izumi nodded, but didn't move when he stood up, so he sighed and added, "It wasn't really you."

"It was mostly me," she corrected, and looked up to meet his gaze. "Kouichi… You don't think I'm… perfect, do you?"

A quiet rumble of thunder in the distance, underpinning her question, broke another string of Kouichi's thinning patience. "No, Izumi. I especially have a problem with your sense of timing."

"You're right. We need to stop the others. I should freak out later," she said, but was stopped from getting up by his slight grunt.

"That's not what I meant. Though our friends do need purifying, Takuya probably needs saving from himself, and the whole world is about to be magnetised. Now isn't really the time to have a nervous breakdown," he acknowledged, but skated past her flinch by continuing quickly. "I mean, look, Izumi: I'm an angry person. Depressed, violent, and hate myself and the two worlds in equal measures, but as much as that sucks, I accept that about myself. It's who I am, so I can use it to my advantage. Similarly, you are beautiful, kind and caring, which are very nice traits, but you can also be a self-absorbed bitch, with some really unlady-like tendencies that gross me out. No offence."

Her lips twitched in a self-deprecating smile, and she stood up to meet his gaze as he went on.

"It's who you are, Izumi. And to someone, some day, those flaws will make you perfect. But right now, with everything going on, you need to accept that, or we're just gonna end up here again in another five years, or not survive the next hour."

"Oka- wait, what?" she asked, blinking rapidly. "Why wouldn't we survive the next hour?"

* * *

><p>Standing over the silhouetted bodies of his friends, Kouji frowned at his digivice, glancing between it and the bright lights hovering in front of him.<p>

Running on the theory that they were still corrupted, he'd attempted to purify them after knocking them out, but rather than data, two bright lights had appeared instead, and he had no idea what to do with them. The first time they'd been in the digital world, being knocked out didn't cause them to become these black silhouettes, the way they did with digimon. Their data rings just appeared, their spirits hovering on the edge of the ring for you to reach out and take. But this time, even before he'd scanned the data, these… cores had appeared instead, sparking with lightning and ice. He'd tried to scan them, but although Chakmon and Blitzmon both appeared on Kouji's digivice, the strange lights remained, so it wasn't like they were just spirits…

"Not quite digimon, but not the humans we'd been," he murmured, and then lifted his arm a little higher, spinning the digivice over his palm before thrusting it back toward them. He'd never done this before, but somehow it felt like what he was supposed to do. "Fallen Warriors, purified by light, be reborn and stand as you should."

Their spirits shot back out in a burst of data, and Junpei and Tomoki both gasped as it hit, filling them back out into their normal selves. Kouji looked back at his digivice as he waited for them to recover, frowning when he saw his own human spirit smirk back at him. "Wolfmon…"

The digimon tilted his head slightly, and—for the first time ever—lifted his hand into sight and clenched it in a triumphant, supportive gesture. Then he shimmered out of sight, covered by a burning white light that slowly faded to leave the screen blank.

"Oh, no… no, no, no…"

He blinked and looked down at Tomoki, who had pushed himself to his knees and gripped his hat in both hands. "You alright now?"

"No," he said helplessly. "I'm useless on my own and hate it and blamed Takuya and I tried to kill him and you and it didn't even feel like I was brainwashed."

An excellent summary, Kouji thought but didn't say, slipping his digivice into his pocket. "There's a difference between being brainwashed and being corrupted, Tomoki."

He pulled off his hat and looked up, his jaw clenched and eyes shining with tears. "I'm sorry."

"It happens," he said, and then turned to look at Junpei, who was still lying in the same position, gazing silently at the stone in front of him. Kouji hesitated, then knelt down, slowly reaching out to touch his shoulder. "Hey."

"Hey," he replied, and then sighed and pushed himself upright. "I'm not sure what's worse. The stuff we said, or the fact I don't want to take any of it back."

Kouji shrugged, watching him carefully, and Junpei grimaced as he met his gaze.

"It doesn't seem to matter how many times I talk it through," he said quietly. "No matter how many times people tell me they care, or how many times I prove myself as class president, or anything. I always… _always_ just think people would prefer someone better."

"I guess it's 'cause it makes the past make more sense that way," he guessed. "All those kids turning away from you after being so impressed by what you could do."

Junpei took a deep breath, trying for a smile. "Childhood trauma screwing with the present? Never happens."

He just smiled back, clapping his hand on Junpei's shoulder again, then looked at Tomoki. "It wasn't brainwashing – it isn't stuff you haven't thought. We've spent years becoming more logical. Not trusting our emotions. It's screwed up our perspective."

"Yeah, we heard about that," he said wearily. "That's something to do with this?"

"Yeah. Because you're not really that pissed at Takuya, are you?"

Tomoki shook his head, but Junpei could only gaze back at him for almost a minute, before shrugging helplessly. "Just about Izumi."

"Yeah, I'm not exactly thrilled with that, myself," he agreed, then stood up and extended a hand to help him up. "But more's the point, you _know_ you should be angry about everything else, so you were. The corruption took your logic and made it everything. Just like me, back in the temple. And Tomoki back in Breeze."

"And me after Rejekushion," he said quietly, but avoided Kouji's glance by lifting his digivice to look at instead. "Alright. So I figure we're putting a stop to all this. What's our plan?"

"First we should stop Izumi," Tomoki pointed out. "Get her back to normal, too."

Kouji nodded. "Then we have to get rid of the last of the virus. There's a guy running around – Fiiru. He's probably the one that completed your corruption. But before we can take him down, we have to take care of ourselves."

"How?"

"Just like I did – focus on what you _feel_, not what you _think_, and use your beast type evolutions if you're going to evolve."

Junpei frowned, absently pressing side buttons on his digivice. "You think we can?"

"Well… I think we've all fought our corrupted spirits now. I had Labu, Tomoki had Dependensu, you had Rejekushion, I assume," he said slowly. "And now, I think we purified them within ourselves. Aside from Fiiru, I think we're the only corrupted points left."

"So we beat the bad guy, and then enrol in some therapy back in the real world?" Tomoki surmised. "This is our plan to save the world?"

After a moment, Kouji and Junpei just looked at him, and he grinned. "That's much less complicated than usual!"

* * *

><p>Watching Yuugi play Duel Monsters, even in a life-or-death situation, was a sight Yami never tired of. The fierce determination, the strength, the power… everything that was usually hidden beneath Yuugi's friendly smile and unwavering compassion came to the fore and honestly, as much as he hated his partner being in the line of fire, when Yuugi fought alongside him, Yami felt like there was nothing he couldn't do.<p>

Which was why he'd thrown out the cards, pulled out the Millennium Items, and was casting and summoning directly from the Darkness. Normally, he used the cards as a gauge, telling him how much power and energy he had in reserve, but with Yuugi there…

"Numbers be damned," he muttered, and drew a flame-covered black sabre from the air to slash at the first of a wave of tiny angels. They screamed but dispersed easily, and he spun, calling on mostly-forgotten swordplay techniques to guide his body while he muttered spell names under his breath.

Back in line with the duellists, Yuugi smiled at his partner's antics, but quickly refocussed on the fight. He didn't recognise the monsters they were fighting, and there were a lot of them, taking no pain to hide themselves from the few humans still on the street. But unlike the Duel Monsters he still saw every now and again, they weren't always attacking, either. Sometimes, they just stood around, staring at the buildings and cars like they were the most amazing things they'd ever seen. Others watched the fights with worried eyes, or slunk away as if hoping no one would notice them.

But all of them, he noticed, would almost absently reach out, and whatever they touched—be it machine or human—would glow like a blue barcode for a second. If it was an object, it would crumble slightly as the monster pulled away, mostly whole but missing parts. Humans would collapse where they stood, still awake but apparently no longer able or willing to hold themselves up.

An emotional virus, he realised, and shoved two defence-boosting effects into play. It cost him a turn when he was too busy to give his Maho Vailo an order to attack anything new, but she was already ridiculously overpowered and happy to continue guarding him, as he silently stared around the street and realised things were getting worse.

* * *

><p>The sounds of the fighting had stopped. Now, there was only the sound of boots hitting crystal, and occasionally, someone calling out for a friend. But the gateway didn't hear – he was lost in his own head now. All the things he could have done, all the things he should have said…<p>

Fiiru materialised beside him, turning a short staff through his hands as he watched and waited.

It wouldn't be long.

Humans were such strange creatures. He'd never understood them. Ruled by logic, but driven by emotion… or was it the other way around? Did they live for the rules that bound them, driven by some emotional need for structure?

He'd spent millennia of digital time trying to work that out. Trying to find that balance that made humans so… human.

Computers were different. They worked on numbers… facts. Even when they were programmed for 'happiness', it was always just a number. Some… quota to be fulfilled, ranked by specific markers.

The problem was that no one had ever told the processor what that quota was.

When he was alive, Noah Kaiba had never had to think about it. He'd always been happy, and he knew it, because what else could he be? He was Gozaboro's _son_. He would never want for anything. The only thing he had to work for was his father's approval, and as long as he did as instructed, then he would always have it.

And then he died… and the quota became irrelevant. Everything became irrelevant. There were only facts, numbers and logic puzzles. And even those had nothing to do with him, because he… he was just a machine.

"_If you had Kaiba Corporation's stockpile of bombs, how long would it take to decimate the world's population…?"_

With that one correct answer, he had failed the most important test. The one he'd never known he was taking. The only really important logic puzzle: How do you gain Gozaboro's affection? You gain it with his attention. How do you get his attention?

Seto, that ridiculous, cold-hearted _child_ had his attention.

Seto had everything.

So he just had to have everything Seto did.

It shouldn't have been hard. Noah was a god, in this world, and all he had to do was defeat Seto, and then he could leave and have everything Seto had in that world. Including Gozaboro.

Logically… logically, it should have been simple.

But then there was Mokuba.

The little brother factor. That unconditional love, that didn't care how weak you were, or what you focussed on. It would love you, and trust you, and you would always have that measure of quota on your side, because it couldn't be destroyed.

And then, that shadow… that other Yuugi, who defied the numbers and the logic to defeat him when he was _God_! And then, to look at him with those eyes… those horrible, pitying eyes.

His beautiful, carefully constructed equations that should have solved the logic puzzle were shattered.

He'd spent millennia after that trying to recreate them. He took the chaos factors into account and tried to solve his puzzle. He'd run simulation after simulation, dozens of formulae and equations. He'd used pre-existing data – the data left over from the Duellists. They had been the ones to break his equations, surely their data was the real solution. He'd used them a thousand different ways, and yet still…

Still, the war broke out between human and beast. Still, Lucemon—_he_—was sealed. Still, Ornithmon was defeated. Still, the Legendary Warriors fell. _Still_, the Great Angels were corrupted…!

Still, the equation failed, and so did he.

Until they came.

He still wasn't sure how he'd made the portal. How he'd connected to the other world. He couldn't do it now – he couldn't do a lot of things, now. It was like they'd taken the power from him. But however he'd done it, he'd called on the human children. Younger than before, because the maths said the older they were, the harder it was to manipulate them. He'd almost won Mokuba, after all.

So he made them just a little younger.

When he found them, he selected his copies. The ones who matched duellists that defied him. That weren't quite right in the world. It was an experiment, hardly worth the energy, and mostly motivated by revenge on the dark one.

Revenge for those damn pitying eyes.

This time, darkness would be pitied. Darkness would be feared. He took control of the human darkness and used it to his own ends, and it worked, damn it all! Except for that… damn… human factor again.

The fiery one, this time. Not Darkness or Light or even the Metal of Seto Kaiba, but the faithful one was the one to divert his attention. Takuya Kanbara, the most human creature he'd ever seen. Immature, impatient, arrogant, compassionate, full of faith… and bored with the world. Only eleven, and already sick of life, until he came to the digital world and found something worth living for.

He hadn't had to trick Takuya. Hadn't had to take control. Takuya had willingly returned to the digital world – had willingly brought it into himself and revelled in every chance he had to come closer to it.

The equation played out, and again, he came so close to the real world. Closer than he had since Mokuba. He felt fresh air, and steel against his shoulders. But he was pulled back in, and confined, once again, because once again, someone realised they were dead.

Only, this time, the humans didn't escape. They stayed a moment, as Mokuba had done, still reaching for the computer, and he hadn't even had to force it. So he'd thrown them out. Just to see what happened.

The portal still closed, and now, he couldn't reach the other side. He couldn't open portals to watch, the way he always used to. But… when he listened… when he waited… they were there.

He could feel them. The six children. He could feel them reaching back for him.

He grabbed at that and held it close. Pulling bit by bit, emboldened when he felt Takuya hold on too. The Legendary Spirits grew wild as he pulled Takuya back, splitting the seams of reality as his friends tried to keep him tied to the real world. But he just pulled harder, hating it when that only gave them more of his power. It was a furious tug-of-war, both sides growing stronger as the years went by.

Until finally, the rope broke.

Unable to hold on to both sides anymore, Takuya had split the difference, and become digital in the real world, causing every other digital being in that world to become real, too.

Fiiru turned to look at the gateway, and gently reached out to trace a finger down his cheek. Fire licked along the path he touched, and out in the real world, another portal opened under the strain.

This hadn't been what he'd expected. The equations were practically shattered, now, because the faithful one had never been that important to Noah. AncientGreymon had just been AncientGarurumon's battle partner. He hadn't expected anything of Takuya Kanbara.

But who really cared, when it had the desired effect?

The children had tried to fix the gateway, but only brought him back where he would be ripe for the picking. They'd been so accommodating, he'd been able to take his time with it. Everything he'd done, from the haato to the greedy digimon, was to pick at Takuya's weak spots.

His weakness, just like the duellist he matched, was his friends. His faith in their strength and friendship. It had been almost too easy to destroy that, and make it seem like all his fault.

So easy to split him apart. Split him open. Open the gateway deep within wide enough for anyone to pass through…

Fiiru petted his gateway's hair, watching greedily as those eyes sparkled with unshed tears.

Once they fell, the door would be open at last.

He would finally be free.

* * *

><p>[<em>C:wipedisk_all_  
>Collating disk fragments<br>Format 0%  
>Confirm to continue<em> _]


	30. Teamwork and Friendship

Rebooted – Chapter Twenty-Nine

_**Teamwork and Friendship**_

**TRUFAX:** Believe in me who believes in you who believes in us…? Or something?

* * *

><p>Compulsively, Yuugi snatched at his deck, and Yami leaned back, raising his sword a little higher.<p>

"What is that?" he muttered, and Yuugi shook his head.

Like so many of the monsters they were fighting, the creature rising up in front of them was no Duel Monster they recognised. Over three metres tall, its arms were ridiculously long, the curved talons just scraping the ground when it hunched its shoulders. Tattered wings flared from its back, the exact same texture as the saggy clothing that covered it from head to toe. And despite its long jagged teeth, there was something painfully human about it; something familiar when it turned its eyes toward them.

"So this is the real world," it noted. "Not bad, not bad at all."

"Oh. It talks," Yuugi stated needlessly.

"I thought Digimon were just Duel Monsters," said Yami. "Different names and forms, but still Duel Monsters."

"No… maybe they started that way, but they haven't been that for a long time," he said, and gestured for his Blockmen to move forward. "I think the kids might need to work that out before Seto makes it not matter. But, in the meantime: _Draw Card_!"

* * *

><p>With almost everything blocked by the rubble, they hadn't been able use the stairs, a fact Junpei made a point of commenting on as they began climbing the fallen rocks.<p>

"Solar Laser, Speed Star," he listed blandly, even as he hauled himself up behind Kouji. "I'm just sayin' there were a whole lot of other options than 'rocks fall, my friends are squished'."

Kouji just ignored him, and shoved the highest of the rubble aside, revealing a hole in the ceiling large enough to get through. It was Tomoki to climb up beside Junpei and give him a look.

"Could _you_ hit one of us in the face if you weren't brainwashed?" he asked, and didn't wait for an answer before hurrying after Kouji, who had already begun climbing out.

Junpei watched them go with a smile, but it faded as he remembered, "Kouji already _has_."

Luckily, though, he spoke quietly enough that no one heard him, and could continue up and out without incident. He'd just managed to stand up straight and look to Kouji when they were interrupted by a shout.

"Guys! You're okay!"

They turned just in time for Kouji to catch an armful of Izumi, and she clung to him for a second before switching to Tomoki. "I was so worried!"

Still lingering in the doorway, Kouichi spoke up from behind her, nodding to his brother. "Hey. You figured out the purifying trick?"

"Yeah," Kouji said, but he was watching as Izumi almost grabbed onto Junpei, only to stop at the last second. The two of them stared at each other for a moment, before Izumi clasped her hands in front of herself and smiled bravely.

"I'm so glad you're alright, Junpei," she said, and he nodded, forcing himself to keep her gaze.

"You too."

There was an awkward pause, before Tomoki pointedly coughed to grab everyone's attention. "So, has anyone seen Takuya?"

"Not since you fell through the floor," Izumi said, spinning away from Junpei. "I was… looking for him when Kouichi found me."

"_Is_ it our plan to find him now?" asked Kouichi. "Or are we going after the guy that brainwashed you guys?"

Kouji opened his mouth, then stopped and leaned back on his hips, considering. "We should do both. We'll need Takuya if we want to fix things, but that Fiiru is dangerous."

"And we don't have a lot of time," Kouichi agreed. "Should we split up?"

Kouji shook his head, and Tomoki sighed, closing his eyes for a moment in relief. Junpei glanced at him before looking up again. "The way I figure it, it –" he began, but stopped when he noticed something glowing in the corner of his eye. He looked down, then shouted, falling back and away from the silvery mirror that had formed in the hole they had just climbed out of.

"What the…" Tomoki knelt down beside it, running his fingers across the surface. The trail his touch left split like a window, until he could just make out what looked like a park. He swiped his hand across it, and they all stared at the still-image of a children's playground, the people frozen in time. Tomoki pulled back, and then stood up, backpedalling right into Kouji's side. "That – I think this is… it's a portal. To the real world!"

"Impossible," Izumi whispered.

Kouichi moved forward, frowning at it. "But that would mean the gateway was open."

"Something's happened to Takuya," mumbled Kouji.

"Like I was saying," Junpei said, still staring at the image. "Finding Takuya and Fiiru is probably the same thing, at this point."

* * *

><p>Without actively noticing any change in his environment, Takuya slowly became aware of the burning trees surrounding him, and the comfortable heat at his back. He looked behind him, and Vrytramon quietly blinked back. Taking a moment to accept that, Takuya turned around and looked to his left, having to take another moment to deal with what he saw there.<p>

Agunimon nodded in acknowledgement. "Just think of how it is for me. I'm technically leaning against my own evolution. At least you can say you're just talking to your companion spirits. I am literally surrounded by myself."

Takuya stared at him for a moment, then looked forward. Ardhamon stood in front, arms folded and tail tapping the ground in a very quiet show of agitation. Kaisergreymon knelt halfway into the flames behind him, meditating over his sword. Takuya blinked again, and then decided he really had no place to comment on weird anymore.

"I was hiding from Izumi," Takuya murmured, "in the citadel."

"No," Ardhamon said firmly. "Not from Izumi. Not in the citadel."

He frowned, then lowered his eyes to his strange feet, bending his toes and trying to work out where they began. He was sure he'd been hiding. He'd been hiding, and realised just how badly he'd screwed everything up, and then… then he was here.

"Where are we?"

"Here," Agunimon said, and reached over to touch Takuya's chest, before raising his hand to press against his temple. "And here."

"This is our last chance," Ardhamon explained. "Either we lose you, or you lose us. There will never be another chance for us to speak to you."

"Why?"

Ardhamon silently gestured to their surroundings. "You're falling apart, and we're being transformed."

"Into what?"

Agunimon raised one hand in shoulderless shrug. "Something else."

Takuya just frowned at him for a long few moments before saying, "You lied to me. You said that if we came to the Digital World, the others would be safe."

"I said that what was happening in the real world would stop in the Digital World," he corrected with a quick grin. "And it has. I said that anything that could happen to the others would happen to you. And it did. You were hunted by the haato and nearly destroyed. You began to fall apart."

"How is that different to the real world?" he demanded. "We were falling apart there, too!"

He shook his head, still smiling, but it was Ardhamon to continue. "As horrible as things are right now, would they have ever come to this in the real world? Would Kouji have done the things he did, Izumi ever say what she said?"

Takuya opened his mouth to argue, but Ardhamon didn't let him start. "You probably would have spoken to Junpei about everything, eventually, but in the real world it would have meant the end of your friendship. In that world, he's a Class Representative, a popular upperclassman; he has other things to turn to when he doesn't have you and the others. He would have, and you know it. That's why you weren't telling him before. Because you didn't want to lose him."

"So instead he got told here!" he snapped. "Because of me, he came here, where it all happened, and in the worst possible way, and now he thinks he's useless, and even if he goes back, that's in his head, and we – _I_ put it there! It's my fault."

"What about Tomoki, then?" Agunimon asked. "He was becoming so aggressive in that world, in the name of justice and whatever else. Is that what you wanted him to be?"

"He was in this world when he nearly killed Kouji for justice!" he shot back. "And now… now he doesn't know what to think, or who to trust. Because for five years, I've told him he could trust me, and he couldn't. He can't…" He lowered his head, closing his eyes as he swallowed. "None of them can trust me. Because of what I did, and became and… I ruined everything."

"And so what?" Ardhamon demanded. "You're going sit here and sulk? Feel sorry for yourself? That's not the child we chose!"

"What do you want me to do?" he cried, scrambling to his feet. "Everything I tried and did and fought for just made things worse! We came here to fix me and I've put two worlds in danger, just because I couldn't keep it together! What am I supposed to do? Fight that freak? How? With what? What do you want? I don't even know where I am right now!"

"We didn't mislead you to hurt you, Takuya," Agunimon pointed out, and he spun around, spreading his hands in question.

"Then why did you? What did you want?"

"We need to stop the cycle. For better or worse, you are changing the story."

"By letting the computer reach the real world," he snapped, nodding. "Yeah, that's a great ending. The monsters escape and millions of lives are put at risk."

"We didn't have a better solution." Agunimon said, and then stood up, reaching out to hold Takuya's shoulders. "And you were being torn in two, Takuya. We didn't want that for you."

He just smiled, shrugging him off. "You didn't want me falling apart? Then what am I doing here? Then where _are we_, Agunimon?"

* * *

><p>With one last glance at the burning gateway, Fiiru stood up, gracefully sliding his sword into the nothing beside his hip and twirling his staff into non-existence.<p>

It was a strange feeling, to win so late in the game. After so many calculations and derivations, he'd almost given up. Not quite, of course, because unlike a human, he couldn't give up, but he'd wanted to.

But here he was now, and all he had to do was find the strongest portal, and finally, it would be all over.

He began to walk away, then stopped, chuckling to himself at the oversight. He twisted around, calling on his cards, and flicked his hand. The cross, crystal to match their surroundings, surged up out of the floor, catching the gateway's wrists as it rose up to its full height.

"We have to do these things properly," he muttered to himself. Eventually, the crystal would grow and encase the gateway completely, a white-hot, untouchable crystal coffin, but for the next few hours, at least, the gateway had to be on display, in the war room he could have led. Fiiru bowed his head, smiling grandly. "My thanks, Jounouchi, the Flame Swordsman."

And with that, he closed his eyes and turned, searching the data for the strongest portal and preparing to shift. But just before he could find it, something caught his attention, and his eyes snapped open.

"It can't be," he murmured, and swiped his hand through the air, pulling up a feed of the data so he had something to visualise. "They shouldn't expect me to still be here. The final fight always happens in an open field."

"Says who?"

He flinched, the data dispersing as he looked beyond it to the door, where the Chosen Children stood, some glaring at him while others stared, horrified, at the crucifix behind him. He blinked, and Junpei stepped forward, pointing savagely. "You are going to pay for what you – what – whatever that is!"

Fiiru could only stare at him in disbelief. "What are you doing here? You were supposed to search for me below. Meet me at the final portal."

"We don't leave our friends behind," Kouji snarled, lifting his digivice. "You will give me back my partner."

For a moment, Fiiru continued staring, before he smiled and tilted his head, setting his hands on his hips. "The terrain may change, but the outcome won't. I've already won, children." He stopped, then grinned wider and gestured back toward the gateway. "Or didn't you see this?"

"That's it," Kouichi snapped, and he yanked out his digivice, hand already glowing with data. "_Spirit_ –!"

"Chiron!" Fiiru shouted, and a split-second before Kouichi's scanner could reach his data, he was blasted off his feet and into Tomoki, digivice flying out of his hand toward the centre of the room. Fiiru spun in place, drawing his sword and flinging his other hand out in the same circular motion. The digivice froze in midair, and Fiiru immediately slashed through it, the data exploding in a burst of black light that leapt back toward Kouichi.

"No!" Izumi yelled, grabbing her own digivice out. "You can't do that!"

"Oh, girl, but I can," he said, only a moment before she was thrown back into Kouji's arms, her digivice following the same path as Kouichi's.

"My digivice!" she screamed, but too late. Wind rocketed out from the white data, blasting against all of them before zooming back into Izumi so hard she and Kouji were forced back a step. She choked, gripping his arm as she stared at nothing. "D-digivice… It's gone…"

They all stared at her, and Fiiru chuckled, spinning his sword through his fingers. "Chiron the Wise was a solid Monster Card. The base of Centaumon, actually. But I found a few more practical uses of his special ability," he explained, and then blasted them all off their feet and into the hall, their digivices springing up and out for him to effortlessly slice through, power exploding and pushing them further into the floor as it returned. He smirked as he put his sword away. "You really need to understand, children. This is not a game. This is an equation, and it's one I wrote. I have neutralised the greatest chaos factor, and even it was predictable to a certain extent. It all comes back to friendship, doesn't it?"

They slowly struggled back to their feet and into the room, Kouji moving to the front of the crowd, turned on a defensive diagonal. "The portals may be opening to the real world, but you're still here. We can still win."

"No," he corrected. "With all you have done, you have only strengthened me. The Pharaoh cannot reach me here, and his facsimile lost most of its power the first time you arrived in this world," he said, glancing at Kouichi before turning back to Kouji. "You are just loose ends. And I am a god."

"He's right," Tomoki whispered, and the others flinched, everyone but Kouji staring at him. He stared right back, gesturing to the crucifix. "Look at what he's done. He just destroyed our digivices like they were nothing! How are we supposed to beat him?"

Izumi and Junpei exchanged glances, then looked down at the floor, while Kouichi looked to his brother. "Kouji?"

He shook his head, never taking his eyes off Fiiru. "Our digivices were just symbols. Links to people we don't need to be anymore. We've been using the power of the digimon since we got here; we don't need them to fight for us. And as for Fiiru being God here, so was Lucemon." He swallowed hard, then took a defiant step forward, raising one hand to point at him. "If you're what passes for it, I can beat God!"

* * *

><p>Kaisergreymon's eyes snapped open, the drama of it interrupting the staring contest Takuya was having with his spirits.<p>

Kaisergreymon had always been a mystery, in his own way. Although by the end of it all, Takuya had probably spent more time evolved into him than any of his other evolutions, Kaisergreymon wasn't strictly his spirit alone – he was the result of Izumi, Tomoki, and half the other spirits lending him their power. He'd always been just a little bit detached from Takuya's thoughts.

But now, he gazed back at Takuya, who slowly straightened, caught by the blue gaze. "What is it?"

His head bowed slightly, and he looked to the left. The flames he looked at immediately went out, revealing a burnt husk of a tree hung with a beautiful silver frame. As Takuya watched, Kouji swept into the picture, his hair swinging in an unseen breeze, or maybe just from the drama of his movement. "_We've been using the power of digimon since we got here; we don't need them to fight for us_!"

Takuya frowned, gently pushing Agunimon aside so he could move closer. Kouji looked tired, and a little scared, but mostly defiant. Mostly the old Kouji that Takuya hadn't seen in a while.

"_If you're what passes for it, I can beat God_!"

"Kouji," Takuya whispered, and the burnt tree burst into flames that only highlighted the image, matching the warm feeling in his chest.

* * *

><p>There was a long pause as the others gaped at Kouji, and Fiiru raised his eyebrows, amused.<p>

"Didn't expect that from you, but… let me guess. The power of friendship will see you through? As long as your friends are behind you, you can't fail?"

"Of course we can," Kouichi shot back, and everyone looked at him, Fiiru's smile faltering a little. "Half the reason we got into this mess is because Takuya and Izumi didn't want to disappoint us – their _friends_. You can fail massively with your friends behind you."

"But that doesn't mean you should give up," Tomoki murmured, still gazing at him, before turning to glare at Fiiru. "That doesn't mean we'll stop trying."

* * *

><p>Suddenly, Kaisergreymon swept out his sword, and all of the flames except the ones around Kouji's picture faded, revealing four more burnt trees, each holding a picture of one of his friends. Takuya slowly turned to look at them all, marvelling at the defiance on Tomoki's face, and the determination in Kouichi.<p>

"_We might fail in front of our friends_," Kouichi continued, taking a step forward, closer to the frame. "_No… we might fail_ for _our friends. But we failed for something we believe in. Something worth failing for._"

Takuya blinked, and Kouichi's tree went up in flame, just as Vrytramon rumbled to his feet. His tail flicked out, just lightly nicking Takuya's ankle, and he looked around to meet the digimon's gaze. Vrytramon nodded in return.

Fiiru's arm lowered, his eyes flicking from one Chosen Child to the next. "That… is an unusual way to phrase it," he said awkwardly, before his arm rose again and he smirked. "But it all means the same thing. Friendship, family… that's all you rely on and it's not enough to hold you up!"

"You're right… that's why we have to have strength in ourselves," Izumi snapped suddenly, shoving her way past the boys to stand beside Kouji, her fists clenched by her hips and chest thrust defiantly forward. "I can't believe you made me forget that. The one thing I've learnt from all this! We can't always depend on friendship and other people – sometimes we'll be the only one who can fight and that has to be enough."

Fiiru stumbled back as if hit, blinking rapidly. "You… what…?"

"And even though we always fight as a team," Junpei continued, moving up to stand beside the others, "if it comes down to it, we'll fight you alone."

"Because if we have strength in ourselves, we have strength for others," said Tomoki, his shoulders drawing back. "Strength others can depend on."

"And if others have strength to support you," Ardhamon continued quietly, his hand coming down to cup Takuya's side, "then you can lean on them when you're weak, and rebuild the strength you've lost."

"So when the time comes, you can have strength for them," Takuya breathed, and then looked up into his spirit's eyes. "I ran out of strength because I wouldn't lean on them. Is that it?"

"That's it," Agunimon murmured. "You could do it alone, Takuya, but not forever."

"To do it forever, I need help," he whispered, and then blinked again, his head rising as the thought really hit home. He swallowed, and almost stumbled, his weight falling back into Ardhamon's claws.

"Takuya…?"

He shook his head, staring at the burning trees around him, and the beautiful, amazing pictures they held. "I need _help_."

* * *

><p>For a long few moments, Fiiru could only stare at them, his arm still lifted but the defiance gone in shock. His eyes were wide, mouth slightly open, but he didn't say anything or move for a long time.<p>

"This… this isn't how this is supposed to go," he whispered finally. "This is wrong."

He was still for so long that Tomoki began glancing around the room, searching for a weapon they could use against him. It hurt to look, but he found himself looking at Takuya – the claws and strange feet. Maybe they could transform too, and…

…and then Takuya blinked.

Tomoki flinched, then shifted his head, trying to look closer without making it obvious. Takuya was still staring at nothing, but now he was blinking every so often. Behind the flames that licked their way down his cheeks and from his fingertips, his expression had gone from nothing to the kind of look someone wore when their mind was a million miles away.

Almost compulsively, Tomoki's arm jerked out to whack Junpei, who twitched to look at him, then followed his gaze.

"Like we care how it's 'supposed' to go," Izumi snapped, and then pulled her arms back and up, and both Junpei and Tomoki flinched again as they felt a breeze slide up with her hands. "As far as we're concerned, as long as you go down and we get our friend back, things are going exactly the way they should."

"And we will get our friend back," agreed Kouichi, as Kouji slid down into a stance they vaguely recognised from the kata he sometimes did in the mornings.

"_Now_."

And then, with no further warning, he sprinted forward, one arm out so that when Fiiru did nothing more than blanch and take a surprised half-step back, Kouji caught him in the chest and tackled him to the ground, then rolled with it to land on his feet on the other side, still running toward the cross.

He skidded to a stop in front of it, grabbing Takuya's shirt front and muttering his name. The fire went out with his touch, and for a moment, everyone was frozen, even Fiiru only able to watch, until Takuya blinked again, and his eyes very nearly focussed on Kouji.

"…help?"

"_No_!" Fiiru screamed, and he threw out his arm, a card visible for a split second as it left his fingers, before it became a white rabbit speeding through the air at Kouji's back.

"Kouji!"

"Don't touch him!" Kouichi yelled, but his shout was almost unheard behind the crack of thunder that came with it, an explosion cracking the rabbit into a ball of black lightning sheer inches from Kouji's jacket. The blast was so close that he actually stumbled into Takuya's front, shocking Takuya a little closer to awareness.

"Kouji… guys…" he whispered, even as Fiiru whipped around to face Kouichi, who gaped back, his arm still outstretched in an attack he hadn't noticed he was casting.

Fiiru was breathless, his voice tinged with the high pitch of hysteria. "How…? I took your magic… I took your power!" he screamed, and slammed his fist on the ground between his knees. "_I took your cards away_! _You can't do this_!"

Junpei, Izumi and Tomoki glanced at Kouichi, who looked back, equally confused. But after a moment, he curled his fingers into his palm and stood straight, trying for nonchalance. Or arrogance. Or anything. "I just did."

"How?" Junpei whispered to no one in particular.

"Not again!" Fiiru yelled, and sprang up into the air, flashing gold for a moment as he sprouted ten huge, white wings, his hair whipping around him for a moment before sweeping back into the same perfectly styled aqua-marine slick as the male humanoid haato. But it was his eyes that made them all lean back, Tomoki stumbling a step despite himself. Wide, furious, altogether insane eyes.

Fiiru clenched his fists and hunched his shoulders, panting through clenched teeth. "I took away your cards, I took your power, I took your damn Duel Monsters away! You're measly, pathetic, biological scum! You will not defeat me again!"

"Oh boy," Junpei said succinctly, a split second before Fiiru threw out an arm and they were all blasted off their feet, barely missed by golden bolts of light that left all of them breathless.

On the other side of the hall, Kouji turned back to Takuya and began yanking at his wrists, shoving the flame from his fingers away and trying to break the crystal holds. Takuya mumbled something under his breath, and Kouji looked up to see his eyes wandering aimlessly. He abandoned Takuya's wrists to instead grab his cheeks and force his gaze.

"Hey. I'm here. Stay with me."

"Mm," he grunted vaguely, but after his next blink, his eyes found Kouji's. "I was trying to do it on my own. All of it. Always."

He furrowed his brow, but ultimately decided he didn't care what Takuya was saying as long as it brought more clarity into Takuya's eyes. "Right. Keep talking," he said, and went back to pulling on his wrist.

"But… but I can't. I can't do it alone. Kouji, I'm sorry. You fell and it's… it's my fault," he mumbled. "Because… I was trying to keep everyone from the edge, and you fell. Everyone fell. Because I wouldn't let anyone help. Because I wanted to do it alone."

"You aren't alone," he said quietly, still not quite following and more preoccupied with getting Takuya down. But even without really thinking, he found his mind flashing back to the woods outside the Flame Terminal. Their conversation about Takuya refusing to be less than fine. And even further back… four years ago, in his bedroom, when Takuya perched on the windowsill and didn't ask for help, even though he knew he was in trouble. Kouji clenched his jaw and gripped Takuya's bracer a little tighter, as if he could feel him through the armour. "You don't need to do anything alone."

"No," he agreed, and it almost sounded coherent. "Kouji…"

He glanced up, and caught Takuya's finally clear gaze. "Yeah?"

"I need help."

For a long moment, they just gazed at each other, before something bright stabbed through Kouji's hands and he screamed, tossed backwards like a rag doll. Takuya's head snapped around to see Fiiru glaring down at Kouji with mad eyes.

"I told you no!" he yelled, and threw another lightning bolt.

Kouji swore and dove back toward the cross, scrabbling back to his feet and reaching for Takuya's wrist again. He hissed in triumph as he realised the attack had actually damaged the crystal, causing a deep fissure in the cuff that was probably enough to break Takuya free.

"I separated you from the darkness," Fiiru snarled. "I changed the hero. I took your power. I took everything that made you special. This time, I _win_!"

He threw another bolt, and Takuya shouted for Kouji to dodge, but he didn't have time. A second before it hit, a large shadow slid into place in front of them, Junpei snatching the lightning straight out of the air, cupping it first in one hand and then swinging with the momentum to grab it in the other as well, ending with a ball of power in both hands as he scowled up at Fiiru.

"My element is electricity. Digivice or not, I can harness lightning," he snapped, and then pulled the ball back, ready to throw. "Arogansu should have told you that."

"Junpei!" Takuya breathed, and Junpei spared him a quick smile.

"I figured if Kouichi could do it…" he said, and then pitched the ball at Fiiru, earning a startled yell as he only barely got a shield up in time. Kouji huffed out a breath, half leaning on Takuya as he clapped a hand on Junpei's shoulder.

"Good time to learn faith in yourself."

"Better late than never," he said, and then looked at Takuya. "Can you get him out while we distract the psycho?"

"Junpei," Takuya interrupted, and they both looked at him, surprised. He swallowed hard, his gaze flicking between Junpei's eyes. "I meant what I said. In the temple."

Kouji frowned, not following again, but Junpei just smiled quietly. "I know," he said, and then turned back to Fiiru, extending his arms at the ready to catch anything he threw.

Back with the others, Tomoki looked between Kouichi, Junpei and Fiiru before settling on Izumi. "Do you have any powers?"

"I don't know," she whispered back. "I can feel the air currents in the room, but I can't hold it the way I could be-"

"Shut up! Stop scheming!" Fiiru demanded, and he threw another card that this time warped into a fist, covered in fire. Without even thinking, Izumi threw out a hand, a blast of wind blowing the fire out and knocking the fist off course just enough for it to crash into the floor beside them.

Tomoki stared at it, then up at Kouichi and Izumi. "Manipulation of energy. All these attacks we're doing – we can't make anything ourselves, but we can use what's already around."

"Like his attacks can be made into Dark Power?" Kouichi guessed.

"And Izumi can push and pull the wind," he confirmed. "Junpei can catch and throw… I… unless I get some ice, I won't be much use, but –"

"Believe me, Tomoki, you explaining that was more than enough," Izumi said quickly, looking back up at Fiiru, who only seemed more furious at the explanation.

Kouichi nodded, smiling darkly. "Now we know. Anything he dishes out, we can return."

Fiiru just stared back down, his shoulders heaving with his heavy breaths, hands clenching by his sides and eyes wider than ever. "No. No, I have the gateway. I have _won_! I took everything into account! I took away everything that made you special!"

"The hell you did," Takuya snapped, and they all looked around in shock, amazed at how awake he sounded. He glared up from under his hair, shaking his head every so often to clear it. "Duel Monsters, cards… you haven't been dealing with us. You're still trying to fight the Duellists. We're not them."

"What!" he yelled, twisting through the air to glare at him directly.

"We're not them, Fiiru," he repeated, louder. "We might seem like them sometimes, but we're not. And neither are you. You're not Noah."

"This isn't a game to prove who's best – there's no Gozaboro anymore," Kouji continued for him, still fighting the cuffs. "You're just a corrupted computer program, altered with magic to become sentient. And you're relying on old code to deal with new problems."

"_How dare you_!" he snarled, and they all flinched as the castle around them bucked, an earthquake somehow hitting a citadel in the trees. "I am more than…!"

"The Pharaoh… Yami was supposed to be the hero, wasn't he? The dark spirit," said Takuya, his gaze dropping to the floor as everything Agunimon said, combined with Hiisutori's lesson, began falling into place. "That's why you focussed on the darkness—on Kouichi—so much the first time we came here."

"But I wasn't the hero," Kouichi said, confused. "Fire and Light were the heroes."

"Right – we changed the story," Kouji said, and gasped in triumph as he finally pulled Takuya's wrist free. Takuya hissed at the pain, but they still smiled at each other before looking up at Fiiru again.

"You're not Noah, and we're not Yami, Yuugi, or any of the others," he said. "You took away what made them special, and that's why _we're_ going to beat you."

"_Not this time_!" Fiiru screeched, and they all shouted as the castle bucked again, everyone dropping to the floor as they were thrown off their feet – Kouji only stayed upright by grabbing Takuya's front, and Takuya snatching the back of his jacket. But Fiiru was no longer focussed on them. He didn't look focussed on anything, just blindly furious. "I am God! I have always been God! I will not be denied at the final hour again! There is no Mokuba! No Pharaoh! I am stronger and I have opened the gateway and this time, _no human will leave here alive_!"

And with that, the floor shattered, and Izumi screamed as she and Tomoki began to slide, the section of floor they were on beginning to fall away.

"Izumi!"

"Tomoki!"

Junpei and Kouichi dove to grab their hands, but Junpei was too far away, and the moment Kouichi snatched Izumi's fingers, the section he was on began to drop too.

"Kouji!" he yelled, as all three of them scrabbled for purchase.

Tomoki just missed the edge of a stable part of floor, only even close to hanging on due to Izumi grabbing his vest. "_Help_!"

Junpei immediately started running, and Kouji only hesitated a fraction, glancing around to make sure Takuya really was alert as he seemed before taking off at a sprint, both of them stumbling across the cracking floor. Holes were opening all around them, crystal raining past them to the forest below. At a sudden crack that split the room down the middle, Junpei had to slide to avoid falling, but Kouji just leapt across the falling sections, barely making each near-impossible jump, until he was close enough to grab Kouichi's hand and try to pull him back up.

Takuya had almost immediately begun yanking at his captured arm, but no sooner had he managed to work it a centimetre out did a hand crush his throat, and he slammed back against the cross, held there by a huge, shirtless man with fire for hair and a horrible smile.

"Fight fire with fire," Fiiru snarled, and the man twisted around, shifting so he could hold Takuya's head and force him to watch his friends scrabbling for purchase. "I am not going to lose this time. I have the gateway and I'll keep it open. You watch your friends fall. You watch them die, and know it's because they came to save _you_."

Takuya just glared at him from the corner of his eye. "I never asked for that. You can't make me feel guilty for having friends that care about me."

"Faith, I hear again!" he snapped, and dropped a few metres out of the air to float nearby, his huge wings motionless in the air. "The same faith and trust that destroyed them before! Hurt, dammit! Feel the pain you cause!"

Even held tight by the fiery man, Takuya managed to shake his head, defiant now. "I know better."

"Junpei! Help!" Izumi sobbed, and Takuya glanced over to see her barely holding Tomoki up, both of them straining to grip the still-cracking floor. Wind was charging her hair and coat, pushing them up, but she was losing her grip, and the wind wasn't strong enough to hold up both herself and Tomoki. "Please…!"

"I'm coming," Junpei called back. He had grabbed one of the thrones and was trying to make it reach out close enough for them to grab onto. But it wasn't going to reach. Kouji was standing on splintering ground, Kouichi only half-way back up.

But, Takuya thought furiously, they were still trying.

And so would he.

He grabbed his captured wrist in the other hand and began tugging, ignoring the hands on his head and throat, ignoring Fiiru's hiss of annoyance. "I won't give up. Not this time. I'm not alone and I won't leave my friends alone."

Even later, when he had time to think the magic of the moment through, Takuya couldn't explain what happened next. The room was chaos, with his friends screaming, the crystal citadel breaking, and Takuya could barely hear past the roaring in his ears, but somehow, he heard Tomoki's quiet words like they were the only sound in the world.

"Izumi," he said, and both Takuya and Fiiru looked over to see Tomoki gazing up at her, his eyes somehow even wider than they'd been when he was eight. He tried to smile. "Thanks for looking out for me."

They all stared, and then Izumi screamed as he abruptly let go of her, dropping down and out of the citadel. Junpei almost fell forward, trying to reach for him, and Kouichi nearly dropped along with him, both he and Kouji losing their grip in shock.

For a second, time stopped.

Every moment, from that first whisper on the train, to fights with Shinya, his thirteenth birthday and the way he'd looked only yesterday, sped through Takuya's mind, ending with that small, horrible smile and the suddenly gaping hole in the floor.

"_TOMOKI_!"

He was vaguely aware of the fire flooding back out of him, and the way the arms holding him exploded in a stream that wasn't data or dust but something different.

When he thought back, later, he remembered the evolution. He grew almost half a metre, bulking up and out to accommodate an iron skeleton and powerful, solid tail, his whole body growing into armour that snapped into place like it had always been there. The feathers spread further up his arms and angled themselves into wings that separated onto his back as he shattered the cross. His hair had grown, reaching down his back, but was kept back by a helmet that slammed into place over his eyes as everything came into sharper, eagle-eyed focus.

But at the time, all he was aware of was launching himself out and away, down through the hole in the floor and after his falling friend.

In five seconds, Tomoki had fallen what seemed like forever, past the knotted branches that held up the citadel and away from the winding path. But Takuya was faster than gravity now. It took only a moment to catch up, a second to snatch Tomoki and snare him close to his chest, a breath to spread his wings and slam into the air, a breath to stop and check him.

Tomoki gaped back, blinking hard and unbelieving. "Wh- I – Y-"

"What the hell!" Takuya yelled. "I am so mad at you right now!"

"T- Takuya?"

He seemed okay. Shocked to be alive, and a little surprised at Takuya's appearance, but… okay. Takuya heaved out a breath and let his glare become a little more fond. "We don't do sacrifice anymore. Okay?"

He nodded once, still staring, and Takuya took it as it was intended, slamming his wings out and down to begin shooting back up. On the way through the hole in the floor, he scooped up Kouichi, and his wings gave Izumi the last added boost she needed for all of them to get back up and out, falling back to the more solid sections of the floor.

"Tomoki!" Junpei cried, rushing over to grab him as Takuya put him down. He snatched him by both shoulders and shook him. "Don't do that, man!"

"Izumi was going to fall," he explained vaguely, and leaned into Junpei's hug a little bonelessly. "I'm okay…"

Kouichi stumbled as Takuya put him down, but only caught his brother's shoulder for balance before both of them looked at their friend's new form. Takuya took a steadying breath, his wings fluttering slightly under the scrutiny as he waited for judgement.

But in the end, Kouji only nodded once, and they silently turned to face Fiiru, quickly followed by the others.

He was seething again, glowing with golden light. Takuya narrowed his eyes. "Guys."

"We're not leaving," Izumi said firmly, as she moved up behind Tomoki. He took her hand, and she reached for Junpei with the other. "Powers or not, we're not going anywhere."

"I don't want you to," he said, and then looked at them with a smile. "I need you here."

"You do?" Kouichi asked, but Kouji inclined his head, somehow understanding without knowing.

"You need help."

"More than ever," he said, turning to meet his gaze specifically before looking around at the others, one by one. "My power in this evolution… it all comes from you. Your thoughts, your feelings. Your dependence, your faith and everything else." He swung his hands up in front of him, and stared past them to where Fiiru was snarling, well-past logic now. He narrowed his eyes again, and a strong, red glow began forming in front of him. "All of you are what made me evolve this time. I need your help to win this."

"What is it with us becoming uber powerful after an attempted sacrifice?" Junpei muttered, but he still smiled at Takuya's look. "Just like last time. Six of us in one form."

"One big final attack," Tomoki said defiantly, his eyes flicking toward the red glow still forming between Takuya's hands. "A sword made of our will, all together as one."

"We're with you, Takuya," Izumi said firmly, and Kouichi nodded.

"Let's finish this, once and for all."

Takuya nodded to them all, and then looked at Kouji, who just gazed back, waiting for the glow to finally become a huge, molten-red sword. It dropped into Takuya's hands, and he swung it out, up and around to let it hang from one hand.

Kouji's eyebrow twitched in an aborted smirk. "We were supposed to be saving you."

"You did," he said, and after a long moment, Kouji nodded.

"Go get him, Guardian."

Despite the odd moniker, Takuya only smiled and leapt into the air, wings flaring as he rose up to meet Fiiru across the gaping chasm in the floor. Fiiru snarled, his own wings beating once to give him more height as he lifted both arms over his head, gold lightning forming into a ball larger than any so far.

"Even if I didn't win this time," Fiiru yelled, "I still have you! I'll destroy you and your data will come back to my code! I'll find the answer next time! I was close enough that I can't lose again."

"You don't get it, do you?" Takuya snapped back, and he swung around, his sword looping up and around to get the most momentum. "This _isn't_ your code! This isn't your story! We changed the story the moment we stepped into your world! There isn't going to be a next time!"

"We'll see. _Shinato's punishment_!" he screamed, and threw the lightning, but Takuya only swung his sword up to meet it, slicing the energy into raw data that hung in the air around him as he flew forward, the momentum of his slash still turning the sword through his hands for a final devastating attack.

"_Sword of the Combined Spirits' Strength_!"

Fiiru gasped as the blade passed through him, freezing him in place as he stared at Takuya's heavy glare.

"This is our story and our world. And it's time Noah was put to rest," he said, and then swung his sword up and around, dispersing it into data so he could pull his hands together in a priest's prayer. "Evil creature, combine and be purified by the spirits of the digital world. Digicode… _come_."

Fiiru exploded in a burst of data, joining the floating lights around them, before Takuya bowed his head, and it all rushed toward him, making him hiss as it absorbed into his system. By the time he looked up, Fiiru, Noah, and everything he had been were gone.

And finally, after millennia of digital time, the world began to crumble.

* * *

><p>[<em>C:wipedisk_all_  
>Collating disk fragments<br>Format 0%  
>Confirm to continue<em>

_wipedisk_all_run_confir__]


	31. The Gateway Guardians

Rebooted – Chapter Thirty

_**The Gateway Guardian**_

**TRUFAX**: This fic started as an idea that wouldn't get out of my head. It now is. It was never about reviews, or anything like that. But still, if you got through this with me, if you favourited or followed or even if you just read all the way through, I would like to know what you liked or hated or were just sitting through the chapters for. Regardless, thanks for doing it.

* * *

><p>"Silent Swo- huh?"<p>

Yami paused at Yuugi's stop, and then slowly straightened, watching the monsters warily. Without warning, they had all stopped attacking, and even pulled back, looking at each other in confusion.

"It's gone," one of them—a kind of armadillo-looking thing—said blankly. "I can't feel the data anymore."

"Where's the portal?" another asked, and its voice rose in mild hysteria. "_Where did the portals go_?"

"The portal…?" Yuugi repeated, glancing at Yami. "Do you think it closed? Did the kids win?"

Yami smirked and twisted his wrist to get a better grip on his sword, glancing at his most reliable Duel Monster. "They have no way out and no back up. Black Magician… let's finish this."

* * *

><p>It was as if the citadel couldn't sustain itself anymore – the brief respite they'd had in the final attack seemed to have just been the calm before the real storm, as the walls around them splintered, and the floor literally shattered beneath their feet.<p>

Takuya spun around the moment he heard the others scream and dove after them, arms outstretched. Even evolved to this high level, he was barely taller than the twins, and just wouldn't have the arm span to catch them all. He was fast, but he wasn't fast enough to keep everyone from a long and terrifying fall.

He caught Tomoki and Junpei first, snatching them both around the waist and all but throwing them at the first platform they passed. It was shaking in the continuing earthquake, but not shattering, so Takuya barely checked to make sure they had rolled to a safe stop before diving for the others.

Izumi was next, and she huffed out a breath when she caught him, taking a single moment to recover before beginning to crawl over his shoulder. "Keep going – the wind should get me to the trees."

"Be careful," he said, and waited for her to leap away before dropping back into his dive. A strong wind almost knocked him off course, but he didn't stop, knowing she could make it.

Metres below, neither Kouji or Kouichi were screaming, but were waiting for him, arms already outstretched and ready. He grinned and grabbed their hands before flaring his wings to swoop through the forest, using the backward momentum to help heft them up into his arms.

Kouichi laughed breathlessly, thumping Takuya's shoulder. "Glad you could make it."

He laughed despite himself, then looked to Kouji, but his smile faded at the blank look he received in return. After a moment, Kouji inclined his head slightly and murmured, "You caught Izumi first."

Takuya faltered, his wings actually failing for a second as he realised what he'd done. He frowned, then opened his mouth, but Kouji cut him off with a tiny smirk.

"Lucky it's not the fall that hurts."

He blinked, then grinned despite himself. "Like I'd let you hit ground."

"Haven't you two ever heard of a non-tangible metaphor?" demanded Kouichi.

The other two laughed, and Takuya pumped his wings to head back up to Junpei and Tomoki's platform. By the time they got there, Izumi had worked her way onto the stairs and was jogging up toward them, barely stumbling over the continuing shocks. She didn't stop when she reached them so much as collapse into Junpei's outstretched arm, and they all quickly joined her, Takuya spreading his wings to shield them all as the citadel continued to crumble.

Eventually, everything quietened, and Tomoki peeked out from under Takuya's feathers to where the citadel had been. "There's nothing there… not even the platform."

"I hope Sorcerymon got out okay," Takuya muttered as he straightened, and Kouji glanced at Kouichi, who looked away.

"Tomoki-han! Everyone!"

"Everyone!"

They looked up, and Izumi clapped her hands, laughing in relief as they saw Bokomon and Neemon clinging to the tree high above them, Pipismon swooping through the branches.

"You're alright!" Junpei called. "How did you get up there?"

"The first earthquake threw us off the stairs," Neemon said blandly.

"Mm, but Pipismon saved us!" Bokomon said, and thumped its chest. "It is a great hero, worthy as the last pipismon!"

They exchanged glances, but said nothing as Pipismon began gliding down to hover in front of Takuya. They gazed at each other for a moment, before Pipismon grinned. "Takuya is Takuya!"

"Hey, Pipismon," he greeted, quietly grateful. "We did it."

"Hooray," Neemon said, and despite everything, Junpei snorted at how utterly uninspiring it was.

As Bokomon and Neemon began climbing down, Takuya de-evolved back into his smaller form and collapsed down between Kouji and Tomoki, grimacing when Tomoki immediately pulled his now pointed ear.

"That is attached, you know."

"Yeah, I guess it is…"

"Can you turn back?" asked Junpei, and Takuya shook his head.

"Doesn't feel like it."

They gazed at him quietly for a few moments, Izumi twisting her fingers together and Kouichi repeatedly glancing at Kouji. Takuya lowered his eyes to his boots, then drew in an abrupt breath and straightened up.

"So, we did it! Saved two worlds and changed a millennia-old story!" he said cheerfully. "And how about _how_ – who knew purifying the creature that created this entire world would stabilise it?"

"Don't say that," Junpei groaned, slapping a hand to his face. "Let me pretend you didn't just risk all of that on a whim."

"Because anything else would be so like Takuya," Izumi teased, and they all laughed a little helplessly.

With one final leap, Bokomon jumped out of the tree and into Junpei's lap, hugging him tightly before turning to the others. "So have you succeeded? Is everything saved and purified?"

"Just the important things," Kouji said quietly. "There's always going to be corrupt files and stupid humans interfering."

"Geez, Kouji, don't be so optimistic," Junpei said, but Takuya shrugged.

"He's right though. And it's a good thing – the corruption is what separates this world from a computer program. What makes it human."

"We just have to make sure it stays safe, this time," Kouji continued quietly. "Keep the balance between worlds steady."

"How?" asked Neemon. "Are the spirits coming back?"

"But we don't have a citadel to house them!" Bokomon cried, flailing its arms. "We don't know where the Great Angels are!"

Tomoki flinched, and then looked up at where the citadel should have been. The catacombs had always been impossible and hidden—deep underground a city built in the sky—but even with that… there was no citadel to provide access to them. He bit his lip and looked back to Kouji, who shook his head.

"I'm not sure you're ever going to find them, Bokomon. They did their job a long time ago."

"Then who's going to keep the balance steady?" it asked, and at first it seemed like no one had an answer. They just sat in silence, not looking at anything, as the forest fell quiet, the leaves no longer shaking or even rustling in the wind.

"We will."

One by one, they raised their eyes to Takuya, who tried to smile as he whacked Kouji's arm in a lacklustre show, and Kouji nodded, still watching his boots.

"The human in the machine," he murmured.

"And the machine in the real world," Takuya replied, gently teasing. Kouji shoved him back, but their smiles were small and sad. The others stared at them with wide eyes, and Kouichi shook his head.

"No. No, that's not good enough," he said, looking between them. "You can't –"

"It's not a sacrifice, Kouichi," Takuya said firmly. "It's a new beginning."

"It's _not_ a goodbye," added Kouji.

"Besides," Takuya continued, suddenly light and bright, "how was I supposed to go home? My mother won't even let me get a tattoo, how do you think she'd react to a tail?"

Again, they all laughed, but it was even weaker than before, and it ended abruptly when Izumi sobbed. She slapped a hand over her mouth, but couldn't keep her shoulders from shaking, or the tears slipping down her cheeks.

Junpei bit his lip as he looked at her, and Tomoki spread both hands almost desperately. "You're sure about this…? I mean… how is this going to work? You said you needed us to be strong in that form."

"I do. Otherwise, I'm just gonna end up the same as Fiiru," Takuya said bluntly. "That's why Kouji needs to be on the other side… why all of you do."

"He needs a connection to the real world," Kouji explained. "He needs something to remind him of what it's like to be human."

Takuya nodded, and for a moment they were silent, horrified but resigned, until Bokomon suddenly burst out crying, and they flinched at the wail.

"It's so heroic!" it cried, throwing itself at Takuya's chest. "The Legendary Warriors, willing to give up everything they hold dear to protect two worlds! It's an epic story of trust, and friendship, and – and I will write it for all the generations to –"

"_No_!" they all yelled, loud enough for Bokomon to stop crying in shock. At its surprised blink, they all really did laugh, and Takuya stood up, lifting Bokomon with him and using his free arm to pump the air.

"Come on, guys! Cheer up! We just saved two worlds, and now, we have a gateway to go between them whenever we want!" he said brightly. "I can cut paths between the worlds and you all have powers, without your digivices no less! We've just gained huge levels of awesome!"

"You're right," Junpei said, and got to his feet, extending his hand out to shake Takuya's. "It's no time to be sad."

"It's just the start of our story," Tomoki agreed, getting up to put his hand over theirs.

"Like Kouji said, this isn't even goodbye," Izumi said, wiping her tears away to join them, her hand gripping the boys tight. "It's just so long for now."

Kouichi hesitated, looking over at his brother, then nodded and stood as well, laying his hand on Izumi's. "We'll be fine."

They all looked down at Kouji, but he didn't look away from Takuya's gaze as he stood, just silently rested his hand on top. He smiled. "We'll still be together."

"Always," he agreed, and grinned at the others. "Even if we're in different worlds, I'm still gonna need your help, and this time, I promise to ask for it."

"And we'll give it," said Izumi.

"Every time," cheered Tomoki.

"No matter what it is you need," continued Junpei.

"We'll be there," said Kouichi.

"Even if you fall," Kouji said firmly, "we won't let you hit ground."

Takuya chuckled, inclining his head, before a particularly loud crack of thunder made them all look up. He frowned. "Oh yeah… I'd almost forgotten that. What is that?"

"Kaiba," Kouichi murmured, and Kouji swore.

"We're out of time."

* * *

><p>With great force of will and more than a little literal turning away, Kaiba ignored Anzu's pointed look and shoved his way past Mai to take a seat at the console. For the past two and a half hours, both women had made every attempt to guilt, distract, disable and sabotage him, but despite the grudging friendship he had with Yuugi and his little army, Seto had remained firm.<p>

It was something he'd realised early on in his relationship with the group – sometimes people had to make the hard choices. And more often than not, it was him. He was doing what had to be done.

They were down in the Virtual Reality Pod Room, as close to the physical servers as they could get, and Kaiba had hooked everything up. All he had to do now was input the codes, and be damned if Anzu's big blue eyes were going to make a difference to him now.

"Seto," she said, and his hands stilled on the keyboard. His given name was rare on her lips. She leaned over the console, trying to force his gaze. "You can't do this."

"Correction," he said, immediately typing the code in. "I _am_ doing –"

"Stop that!"

They looked up, just in time to be blasted with a wall of air that shoved Kaiba off his seat and Anzu halfway over the console, squeaking as she narrowly avoided hitting the enter key. Mai, startled but out of the way, spun around to see what looked like a huge tear in the very air, and watched as a thin, lithe blonde in what she personally considered a fantastic outfit stepped out into the room, one hand still extended in warning.

"Dude, you do _not_ get to erase our world," a heavy-set young man snapped as he stepped out behind her. He flung out his own hand, and Anzu shrieked again, shoving herself off the console as it began to spark, the monitor shattering in a small electrical explosion that made all the console's lights flare for a second before shutting down.

"Izumi-chan!" Anzu cried. "Junpei-kun!"

"These are the other kids?" asked Mai, before smiling at them. "You're back and just in time. Nice dramatic timing; I approve."

They were followed by the twins, both pointedly poker-faced, and a younger teenager in what looked like snow gear. Once he was through, the rip closed, and all five kids stepped into what looked very close to a battle formation.

For his part, Kaiba got back to his feet with as much dignity as he could muster, dusting off his coat and levelling them with a cool glare. "You have done your job, then?"

"We've fixed the problem we went in there to fix," Kouji said shortly.

"That doesn't sound as…" Anzu trailed off, counting them with her eyes. "Wait… where's Takuya-kun?"

Kouji swallowed, shifting his weight into a slightly more aggressive posture. "Where he should be."

"We fixed what we went in there to fix," Kouichi echoed quietly. "Our _job_ is just beginning."

Mai frowned, exchanging glances with Anzu, but Kaiba only narrowed his eyes, then nodded once.

"About time you realised that. Do not let this happen again. Next time, I won't wait."

And with that, he turned on his heel and strode out of the room without a second glance. Mai stared after him for a moment, then looked back at the kids. "Okay, while I understand you superhero teenagers are prone to inexplicable situations, I would like some clarification. What happened? Are we still about to lose the world to Duel Monsters?"

"No, that's all done," Kouichi said quietly, though he was now watching his brother. "We think we know how to keep that from happening anymore."

"Does that have something to do with where Takuya-kun is?" asked Anzu. "Is he alright?"

They all hesitated, abandoning their immediate answers almost as soon as they opened their mouths. When no one else spoke for several seconds, Tomoki grabbed his hat off his head and squeezed it between his fingers as he murmured, "He's okay."

"Probably better than he's been in a while, actually," Junpei added, heaving a heavy breath. "And with him there and us here… we think we might be able to keep things stable this way."

Anzu pursed her lips, and Mai raised her eyebrows, folding her arms under her chest. "Teenage superheroes and sacrifice," she said dryly. "That gets so old so fast."

"Mai," Anzu chided, but left it at that, walking forward to stand in front of Kouji. He frowned, lifting his gaze to meet her, and she raised her eyebrows. "You should talk to Yuugi before you go home. All of you. If you really are going to be keeping things in check, you'll need to know how to use those powers of yours without anyone noticing," she said, glancing around at the others before returning to Kouji to add, "He and Yami know what it's like."

For a long time, Kouji just gazed steadily back at her, before letting out the half-breath he'd unconsciously been holding. "Thank you."

Izumi gently reached out and curled her hand around his arm, and he turned a little toward her, silently accepting the contact before gesturing with his head. Without a word, the group turned and began heading out of the room, back into the real world.

They had a mess to start cleaning up.

* * *

><p>With a final, exhaustive groan of effort, Takuya shoved the last metal stone into place, and couldn't help smirking at the excited gasp it caused. He took a step back, brought his hands together in front of him to find his centre, and then pushed them forward.<p>

"_Energy Ember_!" he shouted, mostly for show, and small pellets burst out from the tips of his fingers, slamming into the cracks around the stone and melting it down to join the rest of the wall.

That done, he gestured to a gomamon, who spat water at the red-hot metal until it cooled, revealing a beautiful metal temple, finally finished. The collective held breaths around them continued, until Takuya took another step back and nodded.

"Done."

The cheer almost knocked him off his feet, and he laughed as Gomamon and a wall of other small water-based digimon leapt onto him, all yelling and cheering about what they'd accomplished.

The temple—more of a shrine, really—had taken Takuya and the gomamon tribe nearly a week to finish, and was supposed to symbolise the beauty of the ocean and sky by its smooth, reflective surface. He didn't really understand the digimon compulsion to build things to immortalise their spirituality, but then he guessed he wasn't really supposed to. It made them happy, and that, he was reminded as a gizamon leapt onto his shoulder and roughly nudged his head in an excited hug, was all he needed to know.

He had been in this world for over a year of digital time, and for the most part, he didn't regret it in the slightest. It was absolute chaos, with constantly warring factions, insane villages and bustling towns, all interspersed with calm mountain tops and beautiful valleys. Widely known as the Guardian Spirit of the Digital World, Takuya was looked on by most digimon as a friend, protector, and at times like the past week, workhorse.

He never found himself stationary for long, always moving between areas and helping out where he could. He'd only had to really fight a few times – most of the times he evolved into his Guardian form it was so he could fly, or show off for younger digimon that he play-fought with to pass the time.

But sometimes… when it had been a while since his friends had called for him to open a portal, or he spent too long with a particularly close-knit tribe… sometimes he missed the human world. His family. His friends.

Well. He did see his friends fairly regularly. But it was a lot more often for them than him – time moved faster in his world, as was painfully obvious in the first few months, when he opened the portal for the first time only to discover it had been less than a week since they'd left. Mokuba had since moved the remains of the digital world's base server onto a small, slow computer, and then manually slowed it down even further, but until the world's support system grew strong enough to separate from its origins altogether, the Digital World would always move faster. It was a fact of computers, apparently.

Still, he didn't mind. It kind of made him feel like he wasn't missing out on much… even though he knew he was.

"Student council elections begin soon," Junpei had told him, last time he came by. "Looks like I might get one of the top jobs."

"That's awesome, man," Takuya had slapped him on the back and told him how well-deserved it was, but he still kinda wished he could be there. They had gone to the same school, so even though he was in a different year group, he still would have been at the ceremony.

More importantly, he wished he could have been there to help his friends adjust to their new lives. Everything had changed – their relationships and their powers.

"It's weird, you know?" Tomoki had said, freezing a glass of water just so he could reshape the ice. "I get now how you used to talk about the weather like it was alive. I'm always aware of it, even when I haven't been outside for days."

"Why aren't you going outside for days?" Takuya has asked, watching him from the corner of his eye, but Tomoki hadn't looked away from the ice. He never met his gaze when Takuya asked questions like that.

"We just had your memorial," Kouichi told him, only a few real-world days after that, when he and Izumi stepped through the portal only for Izumi to immediately begin sobbing into Takuya's chest.

He blanched. "My _what_?"

"Yeah… you're still missing, officially. But it was very touching. Izumi was asked to make a speech, since Kouji wouldn't."

Apparently, it was being taken for granted that something had happened to the group during the Duel Monster attack. Since Takuya hadn't come back, and the rest of the group all seemed 'different' afterward, it was assumed they'd been attacked and Takuya had gotten hurt or worse, trying to be a hero.

"The schools are having a field day, though. You're practically a public service announcement," Izumi said, after she'd calmed down. "They're saying you should never try to be a hero – leave it to the professionals. It's kinda funny, in a totally not funny way."

He just smiled and hugged her sideways, meeting Kouichi's gaze again. The good part of all that was that the group had an excuse for their odd behaviour, this time. Still, even as much as he loved the Digital World, he wished he could be more than a weekly support for them, even if they said they didn't need more.

"Seriously, though, we're doing alright," Junpei had assured him. "It's a little weird without you around, and these powers are kinda weird, but we're getting used to it. Every so often, we go up to Domino and train with the Duellists. They don't know so much about electricity and stuff, but they're good for the ebb and flow of power, and keeping tabs on other worlds. We're learning."

"Things are getting better," Kouichi had said. "Better than they were, even. Tomoki's joined the winter sports club. Between that and school, he doesn't have time to think too much anymore, much less get into stupid fights. And Yami's really helping me deal with my darkness. The emotions and stuff. Things don't seem as hard as they used to be."

After the celebration of their new shrine died down enough for the digimon to begin planning a feast to commemorate the occasion, Takuya evolved into his Guardian spirit and left them to it. He released his wings and leapt up into the skies, heading toward the beachside cliffs he had been spending his nights in this week. He'd probably come back for the feast, but he knew he'd just get in the way while it was being prepared.

That thought, combined with the memories of his friends, made him wince as he remembered the news Izumi had brought on her last visit. They had been sitting high in the treetops, watching the wind currents, when he'd noticed her nervous twitching and asked about it.

"It's just… well… I went on a date with Junpei this week."

It had been surprising, but not upsetting, until she explained. "Anzu-san suggested it. It wasn't really a _proper_ date. We just went out together for an evening after school, you know, to… to spend time together. Get to know each other again. Decide how we actually feel about each other."

He hadn't understood, but once she'd explained about how they'd spent so many years just understanding their relationship—Junpei infatuated and Izumi distracted—without ever putting any thought into it, he'd started to feel guilty. "I guess we all kind of took that for granted, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"So how'd it go?"

She shrugged, twisting her hands together. "I like Junpei."

"_Like_-like?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not." She hesitated before meeting his gaze, as if vaguely ashamed. "When I got home, Mama told me to make sure I wasn't on the rebound."

"Oh, jeez, Izumi…" he muttered, and then looked at her quickly. "You're not. We were… I mean…"

"Oh, don't be silly, I'm not worried over that," she said, laughing despite herself as she nudged him hard, but still paused for a long few seconds before continuing. "But it still happened. And it feels like we have to get past that first."

Takuya sighed, and then did it again in the present as he landed outside his cave and turned to look at the sunset.

What had happened had happened. And neither he nor his friends were going to be able to walk away from it without a lot of work.

A fact he was reminded of every time he opened the portal, because Kouji was never there.

"Don't get mad," Tomoki had said once. He was the only one who would talk to him about Kouji, aside from Kouichi rolling his eyes, Junpei smirking and Izumi making odd, confused noises. "It's because now the digimon are all gone from the real world, we're not really sure what our job is on a practical level, you know? You're the gateway, and we need to support you, yeah, but who knows what that means?"

Takuya frowned, not following. "What does that have to do with Kouji avoiding me? Or whatever he's supposed to be doing."

"He's got this theory," he said with a knowing grin. "He's still your partner, so he thinks he has to match you in power, even if it's a completely different form to your digimon-ness."

"Oh… kay…?"

"So he's _training_. Every single weekend, he goes to Domino and trains with Yuugi-san, Yami and the others. He doesn't want to see you until he can match you, the human to the machine."

"How's he supposed to match me?" Takuya had demanded, and wondered to himself now, staring out over the beach. Tomoki hadn't had an answer, and Takuya still didn't.

Not that any of them really had an answer for any of it. As Tomoki had said, they had some vague idea about not letting one world interfere too much with the other, but nothing concrete. And for all that Yuugi and the others were kind of involved and wanted to help, they didn't know what the group were in for.

So far, even Takuya wasn't sure what he was supposed to do. The only time he'd actually even been concerned about digimon making it to the real world was when he'd had to beat down an idiot from ToyTown that was trying to bully the other toys into revenge on human children. Again.

So what could Kouji possibly be training for, really?

Or was it just an excuse not to see him?

Takuya sighed and turned away from the vista, but something tugging at the back of his mind kept him from going inside the cave. He frowned, tilting his head as he listened to the data on the wind, but it wasn't a changing weather pattern.

A mild pain in his chest, just over his heart, made him stop. It was the same place he pulled from to call on the portals to the other world. His eyes widened, wings already snapping out of his arms and onto his back. That pain could only mean one thing.

The digital world had been breached.

He swore and turned, sprinting back toward the cliff edge. By the time he began flying, he was tracking his senses, searching for the entry point, and when he felt the breach centre on the Forest Terminal, he began calling on his friends' power to summon the Combined Spirit Sword.

It wasn't so much that he was worried about humans getting in – dangerous as they could be on a grand scale, they were easy enough to deal with by just kicking them back out again. He was much more worried about something getting out – or worse, something finding a travelling human and absorbing their data.

It took him almost an hour to reach the Forest Terminal, and by then, the pain had faded to a dull twinge. He swooped over the forest, searching frantically for signs of trouble, but there was nothing except a bright light shining over the terminal. Wrapping his wings back along his arms, he hooked his sword on the back of his armour and dropped out of the sky to land hard, fists clenched and ready for action.

A pale kid with dark hair and a very real-looking pistol flinched and spun around, pointing the gun at Takuya's heart, but Takuya instead found himself looking beyond the kid, to the figure standing on the platform above them. Evidently the source of the bright light he'd followed.

Same white uniform, but this time with two very familiar hilts hanging from either hip and his hair out, blowing in a dramatic wind Takuya certainly couldn't feel. Kouji glanced at him with a tiny smirk and nodded once before going back to the kid.

For a moment, Takuya could only stare at him, but forced himself to blink and refocus, a little grateful for the helmet that hid his eyes. He took a step forward and uncurled one fist to show his claws. "You don't look like you should be here."

"What are you?" the kid demanded, and Kouji grunted.

"Don't tell us you came here without even knowing what you were doing."

"I hacked Kaiba Corp.'s systems," he said, turning the gun back on Kouji. "It hasn't been cyber terrorists causing all those Duel Monster attacks – Kaiba Corp. is linked to all of them! I was… I'm going to find out what's really going on with… with… with this place… and… what _are_ you?" he demanded of Takuya again.

"How did you get here?" he asked, ignoring the question. He couldn't have answered it anyway, really. "Did you take a trailmon?"

"A what?"

"He activated some code in his Duel Disk," Kouji explained, and Takuya's eyes flickered to the device on the kid's wrist.

"Seriously? Then we've really gotta do something about those."

"You think? So kid, where'd you get the gun?"

"None of your business!" he snapped, twisting back to him. "All you need to know is that if you don't start answering my questions I'll start using it. What _is _that thing?"

"He's what you have to get through to stay here," Kouji said coolly. "And believe me, guns won't do all that much."

The kid twitched a little, the pistol wavering in his grip, before he turned it back on Kouji. "And who are you supposed to be, the White Conductor Knight of hacking?"

"He's what you have to get through to leave," Takuya said with a grin. "And believe _me_, mentioning the outfit won't do you any favours."

"We are the Gateway Guardians," Kouji continued. "You didn't pass us by, and that means you shouldn't be here."

"So with that in mind, I'm gonna take this." Takuya lashed out, snatching the gun right out of the kid's hands and crushing it. He gasped, stumbling back, and Kouji unhooked the left hilt from his hip and flicked it, an enormous blade of white light extending into a full sword that he twirled through his fingers almost lazily.

"And to ensure you stay out, I'm going to get rid of this," he said, before suddenly gripping the sword tight to swing it, a blue laser sweeping out of the blade and straight through the Duel Disk. Takuya nearly flinched at the attack trajectory, but he wasn't all that surprised when the disk shattered and yet left the kid's arm completely whole and intact.

"I'd suggest you forget this whole thing ever happened," Takuya told the kid, and swung out his own arm, opening a portal through to the real world.

"I –!"

But whatever he had in mind, Kouji didn't give the kid time to say, just leapt off the platform and bodily kicked him through. Takuya closed the portal with a snap, and then immediately pointed at Kouji.

"You've got some nerve just showing up, all powerful and Human Guardian-like, after avoiding me for I don't even know how long."

Kouji just raised an eyebrow, swinging the sword hilt through his fingers again before putting it away on his hip, so Takuya scowled and stalked toward him.

"_And_ you can open portals, can't you? That's how you got here."

"I can open portals," he agreed, his smirk belying his bland tone. "But only from the other side. Just as you can only open them here."

Takuya set his hands on his hips, huffing out a breath. "Two sides of the same role, huh?"

"So it would seem."

They stared at each other for a long few moments, Takuya fighting a grin and Kouji struggling to keep his smirk steady.

"_This _is what you were training for?"

Kouji inclined his head to the side, neither admitting or denying anything, and Takuya's grin widened a little. "You know, I was just asking myself why you weren't coming to visit. The others have all called for me at least once. I was starting to think you didn't want to be around me."

"Who ever said I did?" he shot back. "I followed a hacker here."

"Yeah, it was real impressive how you didn't do a damn thing about him for an hour until I got here."

They went back to exchanging challenging looks, until Takuya's smile began to fade. He thought they were just playing – their usual banter. But Kouji _had_ followed a hacker here, and he –

"I couldn't come until I could get here on my own."

Takuya blinked, and Kouji looked away, aiming for disinterest and failing badly.

"I had to prove to myself that I could. That I wasn't a burden, or just someone to protect. I had to be here on my own terms, for my own reasons."

"Kouji…"

"And, you know," he added, looking back with an even wider smirk, "there was the added satisfaction of making you pine."

"What!" he cried, his arms dropping in shocked embarrassment. "Where the hell did you get that idea?"

"Oh, I don't know, just that _every_ time someone came back from here, they mentioned you asked about me."

"Now, that is just out of context," he said, but it was hard to stay offended when Kouji was so close to a grin. They were rare, so he kinda savoured them. He shifted in place, then huffed and turned, combing his fingers through his feathers. "I was just… concerned. That Labu thing, and you made such a huge deal over how we were partners, and then all this guardian stuff happened and suddenly you won't talk to me. I just assumed you were sulking, and bringing the others down."

"Mmhm," he said. He still looked altogether too smug.

"You know, Mister Human Guardian, you should probably go after that kid. Make sure he doesn't find another way through," Takuya pointed out. "I cleaned up your mess on this side, but you still have damage control over there."

"I can't go anywhere until you open the portal home." He tilted his head back again, challenging. "You don't seem to be sending me back."

Takuya looked at him past his shoulder guard, and Kouji gazed back, refusing to budge. They stood there for almost a minute in silent war, until Takuya's stomach made itself known, and he had to surrender.

"Ugh. Okay, time out on the battle for least-co-dependent. I have been working all day and I'm starving."

"I could eat," Kouji agreed, walking over to him, and Takuya smiled.

Inexplicably, he found himself thinking of Izumi, and her evening with Junpei. He hesitated, confused by the thought, and then jerked a thumb behind himself. "There is an awesome feast being cooked about a half-hour flight from here."

"I can't fly, or run that fast. You're carrying me," Kouji said bluntly, even as his cheeks flushed a little. "And you better not drop me."

"Like I'd let you hit the ground if I did," he snarked back, and ducked his head so Kouji could easily wrap an arm around his shoulders and hitch his weight up.

"Oh, great, so you'll just let me keep falling, forever," Kouji said, but he smiled at Takuya's look as they launched into the air. "It's nothing new. Just go already."

He grinned. "Whatever you say, partner."

* * *

><p><em>Wipe cancelled<em>

_Program_complete_

_/./.._

_Enter command prompt for action__


End file.
